Forced To Be a Family
by AJedistuckintheMatrix
Summary: Lin isn't cut out for motherhood, but that doesn't mean she's heartless...it just means that the task of looking after a little earthbending boy is going to be challenging...
1. Bread Thief

"Officer, come quick!" A woman yelled at Lin from the sidewalk, flailing her arms frantically.

"What's the trouble?"

"That boy stole my bread!" She said like it'd been made of gold. Lin couldn't stop a growl from coming out of her throat, it probably just some hungry street kid, let him have the damn bread! There was nothing more she'd rather do than tell that woman to sod off, but she was Chief and because of that she had to enforce the law...even at times like this. There were days she wondered why she took that oath.

Once she got to the alley where the boy ran to she heard a timid voice from behind the store's dumpster say, 'Go 'way'. A really young, timid voice.

"Come on out, boy." She tried to make her voice soft, she really did, but her voice was as gruff as she was.

"No."

"I'm not gonna hurt you, kid." Her words didn't convince him.

"Uh-uh."

"I don't have time for this." And she didn't. She was the Chief of Police, not some rookie beat cop and she had better things to do than deal with this little thief. So, being the impatient person she was, she just trapped him in an earth tent.

"Let me out!" He screeched as he pounded his little fist against the stone wall around him. Little tyke managed to break through it too, only to be grabbed by the back of his collar, "Let me go!" he wiggled, trying to free himself from her grip as she lifted him into the air. "Mako! Mako, help!" As Lin brought him out of the alley, tears started rolling down his cheeks, he kept calling for Mako to come and save him.

"Oh, you caught the little runt, officer." The plump woman said over the boy's screams. Like a little boy was such a hard crook to catch...

"_Chief_, ma'am." Why was she forced to suffer this imbecile?

"It's not the bread I mind," _'Of course not, you look like you could skip a meal or two_', "It's just that stealing bread will lead to stealing yuans and then assault and so on. Best to set 'em straight while they're young." _'Don't deck her, Beifong, you're still in hot water with the council_'. "I suggest a good whipping-"

"**_I_** will handle this, ma'am." She seethed with barely controlled anger. Honestly, the boy looked like he hadn't eaten in days and this dumb broad was making a food thief out to be a triad member in the making. And Tenzin said _she_ had no heart. While holding the boy in the air with her left hand she threw some yuans at the woman with her right, "That'll cover the food." And she stormed away before she did something her mother would do.

* * *

Well, the bad news was her entire day was going to be wasted. The good news was that the boy had finally lost his voice, so Lin's ears didn't have to take anymore punishment. Not that it stopped him from trying to scream, but let him knock himself out, he was stuck in that chair and he was going to stay there until she could find a suitable orphanage to drop him in. As she was checking through a stack of missing children's profiles she heard a knock at the door.

"Enter."

"Chief, there are two orphanages that have any room. The 'Home for Misguided Children' down on Jeong Jeong Road."

"Absoultly not!" That was for kids who stole everything for kicks and other, more serious, crimes. She could tell that this boy was way too gentle for a place like that.

"And the Refuge for Abandoned Children on Jet Road." Well that wasn't much better. The place had good intentions, but it was in the slums and was packed too full to feed the children properly. Their motto was 'There's always room for one more'.

"Let me think on it. And get the boy something to eat." Her officer gave a quick glance at the boy and hurried out of the office. Now left with another problem, Lin went back to her work, looking at paper after paper trying to find one with this boy's picture so she could get the his name. Somewhere around the middle of the stack a dull pounding settled in behind her eyes, "Can this day get any worse?"

"Lin!"

"I had to ask." she mumbled, not looking up from her desk, "Go away, Councilman."

"What is the meaning of this?!"

"Of what?"

"You have a child handcuffed to a chair!"

"I put plenty of combat gauze between his wrist and the cuff, it won't hurt him." she rolled her eyes.

"That isn't the point!"

"No!" she stood up and slammed her fists on the desk, sending the papers flying "The point _is _that I have a boy who is starving and keeps trying to give me the slip, and if I plan to help him I have to find some way to keep him still and the only other option was throwing him in a cell!"

"You could have your officers watch him!" The red faced man yelled back at her.

"Yeah, and take their attention off their jobs!"

"Li-"

"Why don't you worry about your job and let me do mine? The kid stays in the chair. You don't like it, then go tell on me, Tenzin, you're good at that."

"This has nothing to do with that!"

"Out!" She roared, and the door quickly slammed behind one irritated airbender "Sorry you had to see that, boy." she looked over to the huddled mass in the chair, "The airhead likes to stick his nose where it doesn't belong." There was a breath of air that sounded like it would have been a whimper if his voice was still working, "Alright, boy, here's the deal." she snapped her fingers at her door and the lock clicked. The boy looked so amazed that she couldn't help but smirk a little before locking the windows as well, "The meal you're getting isn't free and you don't have any yuans so you'll have to work for it. If you help me pick these papers up and don't try to escape, you get fed. That clear?" He nodded vigorously as his stomach growled and she released him, "Get to work."

She soon found out that it would be easier to just do it herself, several times she had to stop herself from snapping at him. '_He's just a kid_.' She often told herself, and he was trying. It came down to two pieces of paper that somehow managed to get caught under her desk, forcing the Chief into an undignified position on her hands and knees. The last paper was almost in her grip when something poked her in the thigh, making her jump in surprise. A word that shouldn't be said in the presence of a child escaped her mouth as she hit her head on her desk.

"What do you want, kid?" She asked more harshly than she should have. His lip quivered a little but he handed her a piece of paper, "What? I told you to stack them on the..." the picture finally caught her attention, "never mind, Bolin, right?" He nodded, "Alright Bolin, at least I know what to call you."

"Chief, food's here." a man, who's hands were too full to knock, called from the other side of the door. Lin grabbed Bolin's collar as a precaution before opening it, "Got some noodles and dumplings," he set the food on the desk, "and I got some soothing tea to help your voice, little guy."

"Oh, wonderful." Voice restoring tea... that was all she needed.


	2. Cops and Robbers

"Bo!" The firebender called as he searched for his little brother, "Bo! Where are you?" He'd only left Bolin in the alley for a few hours. 'Stay here', that's all he had to do. Questions filled Mako's mind. Where did he go? Why had he left? It hadn't taken either of them three months on the streets to know that there were bad men all around, and what would happen if someone where to be caught by them. Was he okay? Panic started to worm its way into Mako's heart. Not quite sure what to do, the boy ran around the back alleys and shouted for his brother and hoped that he'd answer back.

* * *

"Mako!" The little boy yelled toward the tiny window of the jail cell. Over by the wall, a woman could be seen laying on her side, pressing a pillow against her ear in a vain attempt to drown out the noise.

"Kid, go to sleep!" Lin growled from her cot, making a mental note to have Saikhan 'randomly selected' for next month's beating...ahh..."training exercise" for helping the boy get his voice back.

"Mako! She put me in jail!" He yelled, completely ignoring her. Lin rolled over to give the boy a glare. If he had just stayed put on the cot she'd set up in the break room, he wouldn't be in the cell. And if he would have stopped crying her officers wouldn't have felt sorry for him and guilted her into spending the night on the second cot. Well, she hoped they were happy, because two seconds after he stopped crying in fear he started shouting for his brother again.

"You're only in this cell because you tried to run off again! And thanks to you, I'm stuck here too. So shut it!" She was trying to be patient, but patience really wasn't her strong suit.

"Mako will come and save me." He defied her, "He'll beat you up." Lin sat up and crossed her arms.

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, he's a firebender. And he's almost a grown-up, he'll come and save me." Now, when in a good mood, Lin might begrudgingly find this a little cute. She had seen the file on Bolin's brother, he was only eight-years-old. And odds were that he wouldn't be able to take on a forty-year-old Metalbending Master. But Lin was not in a good mood and the boy was about one shout from being tied up and gagged.

"Challenge accepted. When he comes to get you, I'll throw him in here too."

"MAKO!"

"Urgh! That's it!" She jumped up with every intention of putting a gag in his mouth and getting a decent night's rest. Bolin's eyes widened as he made a run for it. He jumped on his bed, followed quickly by the Chief. Her fingers barely grazed his shoulder before he jumped off the other end. Running across the room he was about to get up on Lin's cot, but Lin cut him off so he made a quick right turn and headed for the door.

_Meanwhile: In the hall_

Thud, tump, stomp, stomp, 'humph', 'Get back here!', stomp, pang...

"What's going on in there?" Fen, whispered to his partner. Jiang shrugged,

"Don't know." he whispered back, "Chief went in there an hour ago."

"You...wanna check up on them?" the first officer suggested, however hesitantly.

"You...wanna go on through the training exercise next month?" Jiang asked sarcastically.

"Hmm..." Fen turned his heel and started to whistle a song as he walked down the hall, his partner right behind him.

_Back in the cell:_

"Ha, ha. You can't catch me, Copper!" Bolin boasted. Somehow this had turned into a game for him. He ran in circles around the room...and Lin would lie to anyone who said she wasn't putting any real effort into it just to hear the kid laugh...including herself.

"Gotcha." She put her arms around him and lifted him off the ground.

"Hey!" he cried as her fingers lightly brushed his side, "That tickles." Well, who could resist that? Soon Bolin was giggling in delight and trying to squirm out of her grip, "Stop!" he finally cried when breathing became difficult. His attacker paused for a moment,

"You surrender?"

"N-No!" He yelled, so she went for his ticklish spot again, "Yes, I surrender! I surrender!"

"Good. Now you know who's in charge around here." She crossed her arms. Bolin got a bright idea. This place wasn't so bad. He got fed, and a bed and a lady to play with...so when Mako came, she'd throw him in here, and then he'd teach him this great game.

"When Mako comes to save me, we can all play in here." He smiled and ran to the spot by the window, "Mako!"

"Kid." at least her voice had softened, "Mako can't hear you."

"Yes he can, he always comes and gets me." In Bolin's mind, it was only a matter of time.

"How often does he leave you alone?"

"He goes and gets food." He looked down like any child would when admitting that they broke the rules, "But my belly was growling and-"

"And you saw a woman with food. Look, Bolin," She knelt down in front of him like her mom used to do with her. How to say this sensitively, "Mako probably doesn't know your here."

"So...we'll go get him. And you can put him in jail, too."

"No, kid. I can't go looking for-" His lower lip started to quiver and Lin groaned. Damn conscience.

"...Fine kid, if it will make you happy, I'll go look for Mako." It'd be quieter on the streets anyway. With a quick stop by her office to pick up Mako's picture, she was back on the streets. Peace and quiet at last. The only clue she had to his whereabouts was the alley Bolin had hidden in. But a quick seismic scan told her that if Bolin's brother had come back here looking for him, he was long gone. Well, that was the end of that. Right. She'd done her job...and there was still a kid roaming on the streets out here. An eight-year-old kid. Who was probably alone...and in the same shape Bolin was...damn conscience!

"Mako!" She yelled, walking to the end of the street and using her seismic sense again, "Mako!"

"Hey lady, shut up!" A man leaned out of his window and shook his fist at her.

"Police business!" Lin shouted back. He slunk back inside, but obviously wasn't happy about it. This was going to be a long night.

The sun had come up by the time the Chief trudged back into the station, coffee in one hand, breakfast in the other. She caught one burglar, two lovesick teenagers, a vandal, and a streaker, but she still had no idea where Mako was. It was only an hour until her shift started so with no time to get any sleep she decided to go eat breakfast in her office and then break the news to the kid.

Instead of a well ordered squad room, Lin found a huddled mass surrounding the desk in front of her door. This could only mean one thing...

"Hello, Mother." Her men jumped at the sound of her voice, saw her scowling at them and quickly retreated to the safety of the crime ridden streets. There on the desk sat her mother with Bolin. She continued to tell her story as though she hadn't noticed the crowd leave. In her hands was a piece of metal that kept changing shapes in her hands, something that was keeping the kid's attention. And speaking of the kid, she noticed that he was clean and in a new set of cloths. Wasn't important, she decided, one of her officers probably brought in some hand-me-downs or something.

"Oh, hey Pup. I heard you were arresting little kids now-"

"Tenzin." She seethed. That loudmouthed windbag.

"and I came to find out whats going on. But you weren't here so I thought I'd entertain your guest by telling him the story of how I invented metalbending." Yes and if Lin hadn't come in, Toph would start telling war stories. By the time she was finished, she'd fought off two-thousand firebenders, took down the entire air fleet (Sokka and Suki helped a little), and held down Firelord Oazi so that Aang could deliver the final blow.

"Where's Mako?" Bolin looked up from the metal in Toph's hands.

"Sorry, Kid." She really didn't want to have to tell him this, "Couldn't find him."

"You said you'd find him!" he pointed a finger at her, "You promised!"

"I didn't prom-"

"Chin up, kid," Toph chimed in, picking Bolin up and placing him on the floor, "we'll keep looking."

"We?" she put her breakfast on the spot Bolin had vacated focused her attention on to her mother, "Look, I'll put out a BOLO for the kid, but I have a whole city to worry about. And you have a class to teach in a half an hour."

"Nah, I took the day off. And so did you."

"What?" Funny. She didn't remember making that decision.

"I thought you could use a day off. So I told your second to take the reigns today." Toph grinned. Lin opened her mouth to reply but felt something nudge her arm. She looked down to see Bolin trying to hand her something. The urge to tell him to wait was suppressed by the memory of yesterday, when he actually had something important to give to her.

"What is it, kid?" She held out her hand. Bolin placed bits of paper that he apparently picked up off the floor. She only gazed in puzzlement for a moment before the little boy walked to the desk and took her food.

"What was that about?" Toph asked as Lin's breakfast quickly disappeared into the boy's mouth.

"Nothing, Mom." Well, she wouldn't begrudge the kid a meal, even if it was her breakfast. He needed to put on some weight. And after all, she felt a small smile forming, he _did_ help clean a mess and he _didn't_ try to escape...a deal's a deal.

"Well, after he gets done, whaddya say we all head out?"

"Do I have a Choice?" Lin flat-lined.

"'fraid not." With an evil smirk, Toph delivered her verdict.

"Do I at least get to take a shower?"

"Make it quick. And don't scowl at your mother, my little badgermole." Her mother waved her off. Lin growled, how did she always know?! The thought crossed her mind to demand an answer, but she doubted she'd get one. So Lin just wiped the scowl off her face and headed towards the locker room. A full day looking for a kid who could be in any nook or cranny within a twenty mile radius. No sleep, no breakfast. Wonderful.

"Hey, Pup. You finally ready?" Finally ready. Like ten minutes was a long time.

"Yes. Just let me get my...where's my coffee?" She answered her own question when she saw Bolin sitting in the floor using an empty cup as the villain for a heroic pen.

"Oh, was that what your drink is? It smells bitter. Don't know how you two can drink it." Lin did a face-palm. Coffee was a fairly new drink to enter Republic City, and her mother didn't know what it was...or the effects. Maybe it was her idea of a joke, drink the coffee and say the boy did just to feel her heartbeat skyrocket. But her hopes came crashing down when she saw Bolin's eyebrow start to twitch.

"Oh no."


	3. Bed Time

"You did that on purpose, didn't you?" Lin frowned as she watched Bolin rush to the restroom the second they entered the police station.

"Why in Kyoshi's name would I do that?" Toph huffed.

"Don't try to act innocent. You did this kind of crap to Aunt Katara all the time, Mother."

"Yeah, that was pretty funny." Toph chuckled, "But if you remember the stories correctly, I only gave the cloud kids sweets right before Sugar Queen came to _take them home, _leaving her to deal with all the fun stuff while I was safely out of harms way."she sighed happy, "Good times." Then her expression turned sour, "But then you came along and the moment of Katara's retribution was at hand."

"Sorry to be such a burden." Lin grumbled, "But none of that proves that you didn't mean for this to happen."

"Kid, there's a major hole in your theory, I was with you the whole day." Her mother pointed out, "Why would I give the boy something that would give him a kick if I planned to stay in the strike zone?"

"You just wanted to stick around and watch me go insane."

"I've never _watched_ you do anything, Pup."

"Again with the blind jokes, Mom?" It was getting pretty old.

"Aw, come on. Where's that girl I used to have so much fun with?"

"She grew up." Lin sneered at the older woman one more time before the little boy came running back.

"Hey, can we play s'more now?" Bolin grabbed her hand and asked with a innocent grin. Out of the corner of her eye Lin caught some officers staring at her, mouths agape. Apparently they thought that she was dropping the kid off at an orphanage today, but here he was...asking their hardass chief to play with him. Instinct told her to put the fear of Kyoshi into them, but frankly, she was too tired. Bolin had been literally running in circles all day. He'd asked a thousand questions, some of them being the most pointless questions Lin ever heard in her life. When Mako hadn't been found in any of the usual hiding places he started to cry. He cheered up when they decided to show his picture at some of the local stores, threw a fit when the shop keeper called Mako a street spider-rat...and that was all before supper. Now, more than ever, Lin was sure that it was easier to deal with triads than children.

"Hey kid why don't you go play with the guy behind the counter for awhile?" Her mother suggested, leaving Lin to wonder what provoked this rare act of mercy from the lunatic.

"You're a real natural, Kid." Toph snickered as she closed Lin's office door behind her.

"Shut up, mom." Lin moaned. It only made her laugh more.

"You know what you need?"

"A stiff drink."

"Exactly." Toph took a bottle and two glasses out of the cabinet, "Here, I dropped this stuff off while I was waiting for you this morning. Does your old mom know you or what?" Her only answer was the sound of liquid pouring into glass, followed quickly by the sound of someone chugging it down like a boozer. "Cheers." She toasted with her empty glass before taking the bottle and pouring herself a gulp.

"That boy." Lin shook her head, snatching the bottle for her second round and sitting on one of the settees.

"You know what," Toph lounged in the one opposite of Lin and kicked her feet up, "You remind me a lot of myself at your age."

"You were a 'real natural' too, I know."

"Yeah, you'd do something to irritate me and I'd think to myself, 'what the hell am I gonna do with this kid?!'." That earned a small smirk from her daughter, "But then you'd go and do something cute, and suddenly it was all worth it." Lin knew where this was going, it was story time, "I remember when Penga had Lee. Sitting right outside in the hallway, you were five and bored out of your mind, and you could kinda hear what was going on in there, so naturally you were driving me up the wall. I barely made it out of there without tearing my hair out. One week later they came to visit us, Lee's dad was helping Penga up the stairs and you shout, 'Aunt Penga! You said he was never going to touch you again!'." Lin choked on her drink, "I had the _exact_ same reaction. That one sentence made me practically forget all the hours of hell you put me through. You shoulda felt their heartbeats...priceless." Toph cackled while Lin stared at her in disbelief.

"No, I didn't do that."

"Yes you did." and her daughter had no choice but believe her. She only exaggerated when she had an audience, "You were a cute kid, my little badgermole pup. Hey! Did I ever tell you about the first time I called you that. "

"Yes, Mom." But as usual, when Toph wanted to tell a story, you were going to hear it even if you'd heard it a thousand times before. But Lin didn't mind, she'd never admit it, but she liked her mother's stories.

"We were visiting Airhead Island and I was acting... like myself and your dad throws his hands in the air and yells, 'I married a talking badgermole!'", she threw her hands in the air for dramatic effect, Lin chuckled at the sight, "Junior, being the gullible little git he was, walks up to me and says, 'Are you really a badgermole, Aunt Toph', And I couldn't resist, I told him an incredible story all about the avatar going into the mountain and meeting the badgermoles. 'Eventually he came across the runt of the litter and then to his amazement he heard..."

"What are you doing here, Twinkletoes?" Lin said at the same time.

"Well, after the avatar cheated to win a fight with the runt, he and the talking badgermole were captured by a greedy fighter who wanted to sell them for gold. But the badgermole, in her mercy,"

"In all her rebelliousness." She cut in.

"Ahem. In all her _mercy_, saved the avatar from the fighter and his minions single-handedly. In return the avatar shaved off most of the badgermoles fur, taught her how to walk on her hind legs and gave her a name."

"Toph. 'Cause it sounds like "Tough", and that's just what she was."

"Then the badgermole found herself a mate and they had a little pup named Lin. The end. He believed every word of it. It was hilarious, but not as good as the evil Melon Lord."

"Who could take over your body if you swallowed a melon seed. I remember."

"I told that to every one of you and every one of you refused to eat melon for at least a month, except Bumi, Katara _couldn't_ let him eat melon for a month. You, well you wouldn't even look at the stuff for a year."

"I lived with the previous Melon Lord, remember? I wasn't taking any chances."

"But I had some real fun with Junior. Told him that story while I was eating a piece of melon. Started to hack and cough and he says, 'Aunt Toph, are you alright?'. I put on an evil smirk and whisper, 'No, not Toph...I. AM. MELON LORD!Mwahahaha'. I never felt that boy run so fast in all his life."

"Coward." Lin went to pour herself another round.

"Nope." Toph took the glass before any liquid could hit it, "You have to work tomorrow, and you have a boy to look after."

"For a minute I forgot about him." she sighed, not something she did every often, "What am I going to do with him?"

"Orphanage?"

"Two. The 'Refuge for Abandoned Children'."

"The kid's already half-starved." Toph reasoned, "That place will finish the job."

"That's what I said. And the 'Home for Misguided Children'."

"He wouldn't last a day." She got up from her seat and moved over towards Lin, "Sounds like you're caught between a rock and a hard place. Luckily-"

"I'm an earthbender, so moving the rock isn't a problem." The Chief recited the line from her childhood.

"That's right." Toph leaned in, giving her daughter a kiss on the forehead and ruffling her hair, "You'll think of something. You always do. G'night, little badgermole."

"Goodnight, Mom." She sat there rubbing her temples for awhile before a rookie knocked on the door, "Come in."

"Uh... Chief?"

"What is it?" She barked.

"Bolin's getting tired, where should we set him up for the night?"

"I'll take care of him." She got up and went to the front desk.

"Bed time, kid."

"But I'm not, aaaaawaaaaawh, sleepy." The fact that he was rubbing his eyes made Lin think otherwise.

"Sure you're not. Come on."

"Carry me." He pleaded, lifting his little hands in the air. Lin looked right, then left. Sure enough, every person in the damn place was watching, waiting to see what she'd do. She awkwardly picked him up and held him at arms length. He made a motion that she took to mean that he wanted to be held closer.

"Happy now?" She scowled as he cuddled her. Over to the right, one of her men fell out of his chair. '_Serves him right_'. Lin walked out of the room as fast as she could while keeping her dignity intact.

"Uh huh." He sighed happily, unaware of her sarcasm. It wasn't long before he was back in the cell, being dumped on the bed. He landed a little harder than she intended, but luckily he just giggled as he bounced off the cot, "Sing me a lullaby."

"I don't sing."

"Pretty pleeeaase?" He looked at her with those big eyes. She pulled the blanket from underneath him and threw it over his head.

"Not gonna work, kid."

"How 'bout a story?" Bolin compromised as he laid down.

"Don't know any."

"Yes you do."

"You're not going to sleep until you hear something, are you? Fine." She searched her memory for a children's tale, but only two things came to mind, "A Long time ago there was an avatar named Aang who was traveling the world. One day he had to pass through the mountains near Goaling, where he came across a family of badgermoles. The pup, he noticed, was very small and appeared to be very weak. But when he tried to walk over to the runt he was earthbended into the cave wall and to his amazement he heard a voice say to him 'what are you doing here, Twinkletoes'." Well it was either this, or the Evil Melon Lord.


	4. Parental Issues

"Hey Xun, have you seen this boy?" Mako ducked as he saw two cops come into the grocery shop. That was something being on the street taught him, when the cops show up, you get out. "His name's Mako." Oh no, they were here for him. He quietly dropped the food he was going to steal and made a quick, but stealthy, break for the entrance. He didn't know what crime they wanted him for and he wasn't going to stick around to find out.

"Hmm, no, can't say I have, Lan. He missing or in trouble?" The old man asked from behind the counter.

"Missing." the woman answered, "The Chief's been keeping his brother at the station for the last couple of weeks. I guess she wants to find this boy and ship them to an orphanage together."

"There's a boy living at Headquarters? Where does he sleep, a cell?" Xun asked, obviously amused.

"The overload cell. Man, you should see it." Wen, Lan's partner, laughed, "When he's around, Beifong almost acts like a human. Putting him to bed and everything."

"No. Really?" Xun gave them a bewildered look, "The old 'Iron Maiden', puttin' a kid to bed? I was that woman's captain, and her heart was as hard as the armor she wore even back then. I think I'd like to see that." He chucked.

"Then you should come by sometime." Lan offered, "I'm sure the Chief would tolerate a retired old Lead-Foot roaming around the place."

"Naw, this old coot would probably just get in the way."

"If you're sure. You mind if we post this flyer here?"

"Like you gotta ask." He waved them over to the billboard, "And give the Maiden my best."

"By the way, why did you guys call her the 'Iron Maiden'?" Wen asked. Xun chucked mischievously and threw a piece of fruit at both of them,

"Get outta here and back to your beat before I report you."

"Yes, Sir!" They both saluted before leaving the store.

* * *

"Mr. Sato, thank you for coming." Lin greeted a somewhat plump man with glasses. Her gaze fell upon the little girl with him,

"Hello, I'm Asami." This man was bringing his daughter with him to a meeting about his wife's murderer? And she thought her mother had issues.

"I'm so sorry, Chief Beifong, I really didn't want to bring her but today's the nanny's day off and..."

"I see." She turned and gestured for them to follow her. There was no way that little girl should be here, but as luck would have it there was a little boy who shouldn't be here either. Since she was on duty, Bolin would be playing in her office. The doors would be open so that any officer in the squad room could hear any trouble. Today he seemed to be behaving himself, just sitting at her desk and coloring a picture.

"Hi." He gave them a cheeky grin, "Can I take your name and massage?"

"Message, Kid. Very amusing. Now get outta my chair." She softly barked as she picked him up by the back of his collar and set him on the floor. The little boy just giggled, he was used to it by now, "Bolin, take Ms. Sato and go play in the gym."

"Really?" He got to play with another kid? His face brightened before he remembered something, "But Mako says not to go anywhere with a stranger." Bolin said softly, a pout forming at the thought of missing out on play time.

"You're surrounded by police, she can't hurt you. Go on. Before my better judgment kicks in." Well if it was okay with her...

"Tag. You're it!" He shouted before running down the hall. Asami looked to her father for permission.

"Go ahead, but behave yourself."

"Bye, Daddy." She waved enthusiastically before sprinting after Bolin.

"Now that they're gone. You said you have information about firebender that murdered my wife."

"We have a suspect, we asked you to come for identification."'

"Finally," for the first time in two years he breathed a sigh of relief, it was over.

"Whenever you're ready."

_Meanwhile in the gym:_

"Hey Bolin, who's this?"

"I'm Asami Sato. Nice to meet you." Asami stuck out her hand to the police officer like her daddy taught her to.

"Well, nice to meet you too, Asami." Song shook the polite girl's hand, "Does the Chief know you two are here?"

"She told us to play in here."

"Alright, just stay way from the weights. Okay?" The children nodded. Satisfied, Song went back to his workout. Bolin faced his playmate.

"Okay, so let's play Avatar. You can be Aang, I'll be Zuko, and I'll teach you firebending."

"I wanna be Katara." Asami insisted. But Katara was a waterbender, how was he going to teach a waterbender to bend fire?

"Hmm," the little boy pondered for a moment, "Oh, I know! You be Katara with team Avatar, and I'll be Zuko. You hide and I'll chase you around."

"Okay close your eyes and count to ten."

"One, two three..."

_Observation room #1_

Lin offered Hiroshi a chair and brought in a line up of ten. She absolutely hated the line ups. There were times that the victims didn't recognize anyone, but pointed to a suspect anyway. She couldn't for the life of her figure out why. That one stupid gesture could kill the case in front of a judge. What made everything worse is that she couldn't legally drop any hints, so she could only hope that he was good with faces or at least had the intelligence to admit that he wasn't.

"Is there anyone you recognize, Mr. Sato?" Pale complexion, that was actually a good sign. Hiroshi pointed a shaky finger towards the glass.

"Th-the third man down. He's the one."

"Fen, let the record show that Mr. Sato identified Hideki as the assailant. Thank you for your help, Mr. Sato." and she meant that. She couldn't wait to add a few more charges to his collection and put that scum away for life.

"Could I get a drink of water please?"

"Of course." She waited for him to raise, and for a brief moment she thought she'd have to help him up, but Hiroshi finally pulled himself together enough to follow.

"Right this way." There were times, seldom of course, when she wished her mother's training included sensitivity. This man clearly needed some, but that was the one test that she didn't excel in. In fact, she barely passed it...and only because she wouldn't tell a screaming victim to shut it...

...

...

...

...Bolin was the thief, not the victim. That doesn't count.

"So," Hiroshi took a sip of the water she offered, "how old's your boy?" She was about to correct him, but, he seemed so desperate to change the subject and it didn't matter. She wouldn't see him again after the trial.

"Six. Your girl?"

"Eight. Two years later, she still has nightmares. Maybe now they'll stop." Not likely, but she wasn't going to crush the man's hopes, she also couldn't think of a single thing to say back to the man, "Well, Asami's probably ready to go." Finally, after a good five minutes of awkward silence. '_Don't be heartless, Beifong, the man lost his spouse. You know the feeling_'.

"It'll get easier." He looked at her in surprise, "Now that her murderer is going away for life," she explained, "it'll be a little easier."

"I still miss her. And Asami...she still needs her mother."

"My mother raised me by herself since I was eight. She did alright, you will too." It should sound more heartfelt.

"I don't mean to pry, Chief Beifong, but I've heard rumors that your mother took you to taverns as a child." Lin looked at him in surprise. Not because of the rumor, that was completely true, but because she was forty-years-old and it was still being whispered around the city.

"Only on my birthday. And I never so much as sniffed any alcohol." His jaw dropped, "Long story." She knew the look she was getting wasn't intentional, but she despised it just the same. She'd seen that look many times in her youth, and always because they were questioning her mother's maternal instinct...and maybe her sanity. After all, what kind of woman would take her child to a tavern? It really wasn't as bad as everyone made it sound. "Look. She may have never been 'mother of the year', but the point is that I'm still here, so she did her job just fine. So will you."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because you're all she has." She cleared her throat, "Now you said your daughter's probably ready to leave?"

"Yes, of course."

* * *

"Base!" Asami yelled happily as she touched the beam. Her playmate looked devastated.

"No!" he hit his knees, "My honor!" Lin rolled her eyes at the scene, immediately knowing what game the children were playing. Her only wish was that her uncle could see the way kids these days were portraying him. The little girl felt sorry for the boy and reached out to comfort him, only to dash back to the base when he tried to grab her again. _Well, she's got Aunt Katara right_.

"Asami, time to go."

"Aw, do we have to daddy?" Asami pouted.

"Yeah, does she have to, Mister?" Bolin joined in.

" 'Fraid so, Kid. Go on, get back to my office."

"Okay." he huffed, "Bye, Asami." and he trudged out of the room.

"Bye Bo." She called after him as she went to her father's side.

"Goodbye, Chief, and thank you." He shook her hand, she only nodded. After telling a rookie to escort them out, she started towards her office with every intention of getting the daily paperwork done. But as always, the bearer of bad news had to stop her. What did he want this time?

"Chief, the Council just sent this telegram." His hands were shaking, this had to be good...

"TENZIN!" She threw open his door, ignoring the frightened secretary that kept trying to tell her that she couldn't go in there.

"Now Lin I can explain." He put his hands in the air. She grabbed him by the the front of his robes and pulled him out of his chair.

"I told you to say outta my business!"

"You can't keep a child at Police Headquarters, Lin, he needs a family environment."

"He won't go anywhere without his brother, Airhead, you put that boy with foster parents, he'll be back on the street within a week!"

"He hasn't tried to leave the station."

"I've been helping him look for his brother! Of course he isn't going to leave!"

"You can still look for him, but that isn't a place for children."

"It's worked well so far!"

"Lin, the Council has decided." And there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.

"You knew I'd come here." Realization dawned on her. This was a trap.

"They're taking Bolin to his foster parents now." Tenzin admitted, bracing for the explosion.

She was so angry that she started to pace back and forth like a caged animal. Looking for something she could hit without breaking.

"Now Lin, it's for the best." he went to place a friendly hand on her shoulder. As if by reflex, she turned and decked him in square in the mouth.

"Anything happens to that boy, you're dead meat Arrowhead." Lin threatened before storming out of his office.


	5. Temper, Temper

She barged into Headquarters with clenched fists and an aura darker than coal. Republic City's finest fled in absolute terror as she stalked past them. She hadn't hoped that Tenzin was lying, that Bolin was still in her office, that if she got back to the station fast enough that she could stop his flunkies. So why was she so surprised to come back and find her office unoccupied...maybe because she wasn't the only damn cop in the building?! As she gazed into the room, one of her men cautiously came within arm reach.

"Chief. Child Services came with authorization from the Council-"

"I am aware of that." She snapped while straightening up and turning on heel. What she had to say was not only for Saikhan, but the entire squad room as well, "Did I," She bellowed, catching the attention of every man and woman there, "or did I not give every one of you a direct order to keep that boy here?"

"You did, Chief." They all answered in unison.

"And did you, or did you not know that the boy has a high risk of running?"

"We did, Chief." Said by people who knew that they were digging their own graves.

"And despite my orders, you just handed him over Child Services?"

"We did, Chief."

"But they had orders from the Council, Chief." The vast majority of the officers in the room winced at the young woman's remark. Dumb rookies. Spirits be with her. Lin's face hardened even more as she crossed her arms. That's it, the evidence was finally conclusive...she was in charge of a bunch of morons.

"Front and center." She growled. It could be said that this particular rookie wasn't completely stupid, she did seem to grasp that now would be a good time to panic, "We are police officers. We protect and serve the _people_, not the Council. If you wish to blindly follow some self-righteous, politician, I suggest you apply as a secretary. If you wish to continue working here you _will_ follow my orders. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes, Chief."

"Good. Fifty pushups. Now." The beat cop turned scarlet as she dropped to the ground in front of her co-workers. It was actually a common punishment for rookies, to embarrass them, remind them of their rank in the pack, so to speak, "You will be working the late shift the rest of the month." It went without saying that she would be going to the dreaded training session next week, "Dismissed."

"Yes, Chief Beifong." Now that the example had been made, she needed to say one more thing to the entire audience.

"In the future," assuming she wasn't replaced for punching Tenzin, "if the Council's orders contradict mine you will tell them to take it up with me, since none of you have the backbone to tell them to stay out of police business, I will do it myself. Get back to work." Now she needed to go in her office and do paperwork while she planed her next move. First, she'd have to find where they set him up. Second sh-...her list ended there. When she sat at her desk and saw the drawling Bolin had done. Though obviously done with a child's skill, there was no mistaken the three disproportionate figures on the page were Mako, Bolin and herself. They seemed to be running from her in what she guessed was a game of cops and robbers in the overload cell. One big, barely legible word dominated the top portion of the sheet,

'_Home_'

Tears threatened to spill, but she shook them away. After she reunited Bolin with his brother she would find a suitable place for them both, and that would be the end of it.

_Air Temple Island:_

"I fell down." Tenzin insisted to his wife.

"After Beifong punched you, Tenzin. Li Wei told me all about it. Why are you covering for that woman?" A very angry, and very pregnant, acolyte asked harshly. The airbender had to think about his answer for a minute. He really hadn't expected his secretary to trouble his wife over this.

"Pema, dear, Lin has a very protective nature and she felt that-"

"Oh Tenzin. You have to stop thinking like that, she had no right to hit you. Is...is that what you told yourself while you two were dating?"

"What?" His eyes widened, "Lin never stuck me while she and I were together." Of course there was that one time, when she was particularly mad at him, that she said the only reason she didn't was because she would have to arrest herself for domestic violence. But Pema didn't need to know about that.

"Are you sure?" She looked him in the eye, trying to discern whether or not he was telling the truth. Finally she decided that he wasn't lying and continued the conversation, "But she still shouldn't have hit you. You should have told the Council."

"I couldn't betray her again." He whispered, no longer meeting her gaze.

"Betray her? What are you talking about? We never..."

"You wouldn't understand." It was a little complicated, and every time someone involved tried to explain to their spouse they were only met with strange looks.

"What wouldn't I understand?!" Now she was yelling at him, and he decided that giving it a try couldn't do any harm.

"When we were children, Fire Lord Zuko told us that he once foolishly betrayed his uncle, General Iroh. Later that night, Bumi called us all to the beach where we took an a oath. That no matter how mad we got, we would not tell on one another and we would always help each other."

"Tenzin-"

"Please let me finish, Pema. I know it was just a childhood pledge, but if you think about it, it was very mature. We agreed to settle our differences among ourselves and never to turn our backs when a family member needed help. And that philosophy carried through to our adult years. For example, Lin and Bumi were in a pranking war, and Bumi spiked her drink and dumped her in a strange bed without any cloths." Pema gasped,

"Why would he do such a thing?" She asked, horrified,

"Because she ran him up a flagpole in nothing but lady's undergarments." Tenzin explained simply, "He did cover her with a blanket and stood just out of sight to watch over her. But the point is that during that war they both had every reason to get the police involved, and instead they chose honor the agreement." He looked to the floor in shame, "But when my loyalty was tested, I broke my word."

"You regret us, don't you?" Pema cried furiously, perhaps with the help of hormonal mood swings, and left the room as fast as her belly would let her.

"Monkey Feathers! I knew I couldn't explain this well enough!" He caught up with her and held her tightly,

"Please believe me when I say I love you and I don't regret this." Tenzin gestured to the both of them, "It's just I wish I had handled things differently. I wish I'd ended my relationship with Lin sooner, because I knew we would both be unhappy. Lin agreed to live on the island and have a family with me, but that wasn't what she wanted. She wanted to be out in the city protecting those who couldn't protect themselves. She was so unhappy that she started working late to avoid me, and we started drifting apart. I came to realize that we would never be truly happy together because the differences that complemented us as friends hurt us as a couple. But I didn't have the courage to tell her that until you came along. I thank you for that Pema."

"You're welcome." She said meekly, as if she really didn't know what to say at all.

"I knew she would be angry since she was willing to give up her own happiness for me. But since I already had you, she...well she...I suppose the best way to describe the way she felt was 'used' as well. She said I should have just walked up to her and said, 'Eh, you'll do unless I find something better'. So when she became so furious that she punched the ground and uprooted thirty trees, I understood. But when she went after you, I just lost my temper. Then I betrayed her by taking the matter to the Council when I should have confronted her myself. When they filed charges against her for abusing her power, I betrayed her again by not speaking up. Firstly because I knew it wasn't _really_ a personal attack against you."

"Excuse me?" Pema drew back. Oh, he was sleeping on the floor tonight.

"It's just that she's thrown several of us in a cell over the years. It was wrong, but it was much better than being beaten up and she never filed any charges against us. Plus, we knew that was just her way of getting the final word and we would laugh about it later. It wasn't as if what she did to you was out of the ordinary. But the other, most important reason was that she needed help, and though I was regretting what I'd done, I kept silent. The only reason Lin wasn't fired is because Toph threatened to stop the Beifong family's generous donations to the city's funds if she was."

"And she will be fired regardless of the donations if she has another offense?" Her question was answered with a nod.

"Pema, I know you probably don't understand my personal reasons, but please understand...Lin truly believes that taking Bolin out of police custody will prompt him to run away and live on the streets again. She was just being her normal, overprotective self."

"I still don't agree, but if you really don't want me to make a fuss..."

"I would appreciate it."

"Then I won't." She cuddled into his chest, "But if she does it again I'm calling in a brute squad." _That would have to be some brute squad_, he thought to himself as relief washed over him. Their fight was over, now he could get a good night's rest before his big trip tomorrow, "Tenzin."

"Yes, Sweetie?"

"When did she throw you in jail?"

"Uh, I was sixteen, Lin had spent the night while Toph was working late and I accidentally let it slip to my mother that she'd snuck out to meet her boyfriend at two in the morning."

* * *

"Mako! Chief!" He called into the night air, watching his breath float away. His big brother was right. He said that if you weren't careful, bad men would come to steal you away. And that's exactly what happened! The only thing that puzzled the boy was that Chief said that as long as the cops were around, that wouldn't happen, but it did, "They must've been really, really, bad men if they scared the police!" he finally concluded. Well Mako wouldn't be scared of them, he'd woulda beat up those bad guys. Chief wouldn't be scared of them, she'd tell them to go away like she told the man with the blue arrow colored on his forehead. All he had to do was find one of them, then he would be safe and out of the cold.

"Chief! Mako!"


	6. Rumble

Pema turned over and mumbled as someone shook her bed in an effort to wake her up. As she quickly became more aware she found that after the first rumble, her bed continued to shake, only a little less violently. It felt like an earthquake. Unsteadily, she ran out of her room where she was met some other acolytes running into her home, telling her to go back in her room and hide, Lin Beifong had made a bridge to the island and would be at the doorstep within a minute.

Panic filled the house as they looked out the window and saw an earthbender in the distance riding a wave towards them. All of Pema's caretakers scurried around like catmice. She did as she was told while they piled everything within reach against the door. With no decent place to hide she slid with her back against the wall. Her mind pondering the big questions, '_why this was happening, why couldn't that bitter woman just leave them alone? Why did Tenzin insist on leaving. Why hadn't he reported that...that vile woman and have her arrested for assault? Why hadn't she?'_.

"Stupid, childish oath." She grumbled to herself. Now their baby's life could be in danger! Shouts were heard as a cloud of dust came through the window she'd left cracked open because of a heat flash, soon followed by the sound of someone trying to break down the door. The expecting mother knew she should stay put, but as the dust cleared she edged over to the other side of her room to get a peek of the crazy woman. And what see saw made her heart stop.

"Let her in!" She hollered at the top of her lungs, "No stop! It's okay." she yelled taking a man by the name of Deshi by the arm before he could add a small table to the pile. Everyone looked at her in shock, but only for a moment before taking her word and swiftly moving everything out of the doorway. Just as the last table was moved the door came crashing open. Luckily everyone managed to get out of the way as the Police Chief rushed past them holding a little boy in her arms. She came to a halt in the sitting room where she placed the child on a cushion.

"Medic!" She yelled, but in vain as the physician was already on her way.

"What happened?"

"He's too cold." Lin replied, half-extending a forearm blade and cutting the boy's wet clothing off.

"Hypothermia." Boa-yu called over her shoulder, "Bring blankets and warm water!"

"I'll get the blanket." Pema volunteered going back to get the one off her bed. In the kitchen the banging of pots could be heard as her caretakers frantically got water over the stove, "Here you go." She handed the thick cloth to Boa-yu. Lin glanced at her, but quickly turning her attention back to the little boy, helping the physician bundle him in the large blanket. Seeing that there was nothing else she could do, Pema rejoined the crowd at the door and watched. When the water was warm, Boa-yu filled waterskins and placed them in strategic areas of his body.

"Now we just have to wait."

"What?" Lin roared, causing several people, including Pema, to flinch, "The only reason I brought him here because you were the closest medic! There has to be something else you can do for him!" Fortunately, this wasn't the first frantic woman Boa-yu ever dealt with.

"I know how frustrating this is, but all we can do is gradually warm him up and hope for the best."

"Eurgh, that's not good enough! I-" She clenched her fists so tightly that her knuckles were turning white, "I...understand. Will you stay with him?" She barely waited for conformation before getting up from her position and storming out of the house.

Awhile later, Toph Beifong showed up unexpectedly, announcing that she'd come there in case the boy woke up before Lin got back from work. Pema put on some tea and they sat down at the dinning room table.

" 'Sup." The older woman said finally to break the tension.

"Oh, just a full morning, I guess. With...Bolin right?" Toph nodded, "And Lin. You know," she chuckled nervously, "we all thought that Lin was coming to get me." she chuckled again at the silliness. But surprisingly, Toph did not seem amused.

"Naw, you're safe. You're hubby on the other hand, is a dead man."

"Excuse me?"

"Lin's gonna kill him." She shrugged it off.

"Do you mean, _really_ kill him?"

"Well, Twinkle Toes Senior made her promise not to kill either of his sons. But you still might wanna make sure Tenzin stays out of Lin's seismic range for a year or so until she calms down enough to remember that."

"Thanks for the warning."

"Oh don't thank me, I just don't wanna visit my daughter in prison." then she took a sip of her tea, "And believe me when I tell you that if Lin calms down enough to give the airhead the beating he deserves without killing him, I will _gladly_ hold Katara off while she gets in a few good whacks." Pema opened her mouth to voice her outrage, but before a sound could come out Toph interrupted her,

"Believe it or not, kid, I like you." What did that have to do with anything? "Firstly because you put the moves on Baldy, no dropin' hints or sneakin' around, you did it head on like an earthbender. Anyone who does that to my girl's man is either very crazy or very brave. But most importantly, you saved my girl from becoming a caged airbender broodmare. But you're going to lose a few marks in my tally book if you try to tell me Tenzin doesn't deserve a black eye for what he's done."

"No one deserves-"

"Oh, yes, sweetheart, a lot of people deserves." She sat up straighter and pointed in the general direction of the sitting room, "From the sounds of it, that boy in there was 'bout twenty minutes from becoming a little iceberg. And why? Because Tenzin and the rest of those self-righteous windbags on the council decided to take the kid away from the only adult he trusts. And another thing," Toph turned the finger at her, "acolyte or not, don't sit there and tell me you wouldn't fly off the handle if some idiot nearly got your kid killed." Pema didn't say another word.

* * *

The sun had set by the time Lin got back to the island. She'd only worked an eight hour shift for once, but then she had to pack up Bolin's cloths from the overload cell, stop by her house and grab and change of cloths, then stop by the Beifong estate to do the same. She and her mother would be sleeping in the guest room tonight. She vaguely wondered if someone told Tenzin's wife about this, but as she unceremoniously dropped the bags and bended off her uniform, she realized that she really didn't care.

"Oh hey, Pup, what took ya?" Everyone was eating supper by the time she arrived. And every person (except the blind one, naturally) stared at her arrival. It could have been that she looked like she hadn't slept in days, it could have been that she hadn't put anything over her tank top before she came to the table, but the most likely reason was the object that she'd carried with her.

"What is that?" The man knew very well what it was he just couldn't believe he was seeing Lin Beifong carrying one.

"What is what?" Her mother asked reaching up and feeling for...whatever it was, "Hey it's Rumble, isn't it?" She snatched the object out of Lin's hands, "How you doin' buddy?" She asked the stuffed badgermole, "Did your friend dig you out of my storage room?"

"_Mother_." she seethed through clenched teeth, "I thought Bolin might want it."

"Boy, Lin used love this thing." Toph explained her antics, "She'd carry him around and talk to him." Her tone simply reeked of loving memories, "She'd cuddle with him while she slept. We'd try to put her to bed but she wouldn't let us leave until we tucked him in and kissed him goodnight too." The caretakers and acolytes all mysteriously started coughing. Lin felt her cheeks turn red.

"I was four!" The younger Beifong pinched the bridge of her nose as she defended her dignity, but she knew it was a lost cause. Her reputation as a badass...ruined. "How's the kid?"

"Medic's giving him an examination now. C'mon, eat something while you wait."

"Fine." She sat down in the vacant spot at the end of the table.

"You're not gonna try to feed your veggies to Rumble again are you?"

"Shut up, Mother."

Finally, after Lin endured her fill of humiliation at the table, the physician came out of the room.

"So what's the verdict?" her mom asked quickly. Lin just looked the other woman over, part of her dreading an answer.

"Well, he's awake. He isn't out of the woods just yet, but...as long as we keep him still, and warm, he should be just fine in a few weeks." A breath of air that she didn't even know she'd been keeping escaped her lips. When she saw the boy the in the dumpster that morning, she wasn't sure if anything would be enough to save him.

"Well, let's pay the kid a visit, c'mon Pup." Toph lead the way and she just followed wordlessly. But then it happened, she took one good look at the boy and saw his red skin and pale lips, and her blood just started to boil. All the pent up worry and frustration came out.

"What were you thinking?! Running out in the middle of night. In the winter no less, no coat, no idea where you're going. Then you decide to play hide and seek in a dumpster?! If that storekeeper hadn't notified the police you could've-" She felt her mother's hand on her shoulder and stopped her lecture. Some how she manged to miss the little boy slowly disappear further and further under his blanket until only shaky ball of fluff remained. She took a few breaths to clam herself, "Alright," she relented, "I'll yell at you tomorrow. Just get some rest."

"Forgetting something, Pup?" The older woman asked as Lin felt something soft hit her in the stomach.

"Right. Uh, here kid, thought you might want this." She held out the toy. His eyes got bright as stars as he reached for the animal.

"Bolin this is Rumble." Toph made the introductions, "Rumble this is your new master, Bolin." The boy squeezed the badgermole close to him, "Lin named him after the Earth Rumble tournament in Goaling. Ever see one, Kid?" Bolin shook his head 'no'. Lin translated for the blind woman, "Well, we'll have to go to the tournament next spring then. G'night, kid." She gave the boy a kiss on the forehead and she left for the guest room. Lin's eyes narrowed at her retreating form.

"Get some sleep, boy." She saw Bolin shake his head frantically, "What?"

"on't weave." Apparently he was still having trouble speaking. Lin never thought she'd say this but she wished the kid could get his voice back.

"What?"

"n't mo." That one came through clear enough. She considered her options. On the one hand she really wanted to smack her mother upside the head, on the other hand if she didn't stay the kid would waste his much needed energy crying and might try to leave. Not that he could in his present state but he could hurt himself trying.

"Fine." He smiled, "But only if you promise to stay here while I'm at work tomorrow. Deal?" He agreed and she pulled a cushion up next to him. Last thing she saw as she laid her head on the make-shift pillow was Bolin snuggling with his new toy.

As the morning sun began to rise, all was peaceful on Air Temple Island...except for maybe one or two Beifong women.

"What did you think you were doing, telling that kid that we'll take him to the tournament?! He's going to be in an orphanage by then, Mother."

"Don't get your bloomers in a knot." Toph said from the guest bed, leaning against the wall, "Come here, sit."

"_Mom_." She almost whined, almost.

"Come on." Toph insisted. Lin had to admit defeat, after she was comfortable, her mother started the conversation with a question, "Did I ever tell you what I did when I found out I was pregnant with you?"

"Actually," as much as it surprised her, "no."

"Well you're about to find out."


	7. Memories

**_Beifong Estate: 119 ASC_**

**Lub Dub, Lub Dub**_. _Lub Dub, Lub Dub. One heartbeat, loud from direct contact from a hand to the floor. Another heartbeat, soft, being muffled by a mattress. **Lub Dub, Lub Dub**_._ Lub Dub, Lub Dub. All was well in the Beifong home. **Lub Dub, Lub Dub**_. _Lub Dub, Lub Dub._LubDubLubDub_.** Lub Dub Lub Dub**_.LubDubLubDub_. Lub Dub, Lub Dub.

'_What the Hell_?' A New heartbeat, Toph could feel it. Someone else was there! She quickly got up from the bed, really just a mattress on the floor, to locate and pummel the intruder. A seismic scan told her that... whoever... was right above her? While still in contact with the stone floor? Well, that didn't make any sense. As the grogginess wore off, she began to realize that the weird vibrations were coming from her, but wasn't given any time to dwell on it.

"Bandit?" her husband asked groggily from his side of the bed, "Everything all right?"

"Go back to sleep, Boulder Brains." she said softly, "It's nothing."

"Come back to bed, then." He gently ordered. She yawned and settled under the covers,

"We'll be eating supper at Sugar Queen's today." ..._uninvited and unannounced._

"Giving me the night off?"

"Yeah. Well I know how much you hate cooking."

"Yeah, right." he scoffed, "What's wrong?"

"You really wanna know?" She thought of a lie. "Fine. It's that phase of the month and I'm bleeding a little more than usual."

"You're right, it's none of my business." He said with a half disgusted tone.

"Go to sleep, you wuss." She thought about hitting him with a pillow, but decided against it. No, it had nothing to do with him wrapping his arms around her...she hadn't gone _that_ soft.

"Good night, Dead-eyes."

"G'night, Boulder Brains."

**_Air Temple Island_**

"Hey Katara, Toph has something wrong with her and want's you to check it out." Her husband abruptly informed the healer as she still hadn't mentioned it by the time everyone finished the last few bites of their meal.

"Subtle." She rolled her eyes, uncharacteristically not feeling even a little proud for mastering the ability.

"Since when does Toph 'Blunt' Beifong care about subtlety?" Sokka asked, eyebrows raised.

"He's right, Bandit. You've been avoiding this all night, something's up."

"What's she avoiding?"

"It's none of your business, Meathead."

"Toph!" Katara scolded in her motherly way, "Come on to the healing room, I'll see what I can do." She dragged Toph along like a child about to be put in a corner. As the blind woman trudged along her sensitive hears picked up on her husband's hushed words. He suspected that something was seriously wrong and she lied to him to keep him from worrying. He was right.

"Alright, so my heart's off."

"Come again?" Katara blinked. This was going to be hard to explain to a sighted person, wasn't it?

"I started feeling it last night. My heart's beating regular, but now in between the normal beats I'm getting faster and softer beats. It's like I just earthbended my way from one side of the Earth Kingdom to the other, but my heart's not pounding as hard as it should."

"Alright, take off your tunic and lay down."

"Not even gonna buy me a drink, Sugar Queen?"

"Just do it, Toph." She insisted tiredly as she bended some water over to them, and put the water directly over her heart, "I'm not feeling anything unusual. Are you still feeling it?"

"Yes." came Toph's frustrated answer. Then she got an idea, "Maybe it's my feet. Like I'm starting to feel an echo or something." But when Katara checked her feet, she didn't find anything wrong with them either.

"Have you had any dizziness, sickness, or anything out of thing out of the ordinary? Something that might make you see double?" The waterbender braced herself for a blind joke that didn't come.

"I've been a little tired lately, but that's probably because I've been running around like a headless turkeychicken."

"Well, stress can do a lot of things to the body. Maybe it's time for a vacation, get away for a little while and rest."

"Just had one a month or so ago." then she thought about it for a second, "But to tell you the truth, Boulder Brains and I didn't get a whole lot of rest on that trip."

"Oh." That actually gave the healer some useful input, "I think I might have an idea." She put her hands over her patient's stomach.

"Not a chance, Sweetness," Toph smacked her hands away, "I'm not pregnant."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know how to tell one heartbeat from two. Besides, my parents' idiot physicians said I'd never have kids,"

"They did make a lot of mistakes." Katara sighed.

"Yeah, but you backed them up on that one."

"Well then it won't hurt to look, will it Toph?"

"Fine, knock yourself out. But you won't-"

"Find anything? Or anyone?" Katara placed a hand over her mouth as her eyes teared up, "Toph, I think your feet need to have their eyes checked."

"Why?"

"There's a baby in there."

"WHAT?!"

* * *

"You never told me about that." Lin interupted her mother's story.

"Yeah," Toph shot back sarcastically, "thought we made that clear."

"That you thought that you couldn't conceive." Lin clarified with a glare.

"Oh, yeah. Well, it really shouldn't surprised me. Those idiots examined me all the time and every year they had something else I wasn't capable of. When I was two, I wouldn't live to see five. When I was five, I wouldn't make it to ten. When I was ten, I'd never be a Master Earthbender. When I was twelve, they finally figured out that I was planning on sticking around. So they decided to advise my parents against marriage because I was too fragile for the 'physical demands' of it. Which wasn't a big loss because I'd never be able to conceive. All of which was for the best because there was no way in hell I'd ever survive childbirth. They 'discovered' a lot of things about me that year."

"And you did them all out of spite." She assumed.

"You bet." Toph grinned.

* * *

"Toph, you're gonna have a baby!" The woman was engulfed in a gopherbear hug as the tears fell down the waterbender's face.

"Wow. A kid...gonna have to let that sink in."

"It's wonderful, Toph." Katara broke the hug but took hold of Toph's hands, "You two are going to be great parents. And think, Tenzin will have a little friend to play with."

"Yeah, who woulda thought it? Listen Katara, could you not tell anyone about this I need some time-"

"I understand. It's a big change. But a baby, after all these years." If Katara hadn't gotten so excited, she may have realized that this was the part where Toph _should_ call her a tearbender and punch her on the arm. But she was excited so Toph's hesitance went unnoticed, "I'm so happy for you!" She hugged her again, "You take all the time you need, I'll keep the men and children out of your hair." She gave Toph one last crushing embrace before floating out the door.

"A baby." She put her tunic back on and paced around the room. A baby. Those little things that needed someone every minute of every day. Those tiny, helpless, fragile..."I'm screwed." So, without much deliberation Toph decided that, no, she couldn't do this. She was the World's Greatest Earthbender, the inventor of Metalbending. She was a war hero. But none of that helped her now. She learned to take care of herself, but she never learned to take care of anyone else. '_Run_', her mind screamed, '_Just Run_'.

Run? Run where? Anywhere she went she'd feel that kid's heartbeat. What was she going to do, go live in the ocean?

...

"I can't find her anywhere."

"Don't worry, Buddy," Sokka gave the man a friendly pat on the back, "Toph's just in one of her moods. She'll show up when she wants to."

"Normally, I'd agree with you, but she's been acting strange." He rubbed his chin, "I think I'm gonna look around one more time before I head home."

"Suit yourself." The Watertribe man shrugged as he headed for the guest room to grab some things then head to the bathhouse. He wasn't worried about Toph, she would come around and until she did he had no intentions of being anywhere near her. All he wanted was a nice, hot bath. He could really use a little 'me time' after dealing with his sister's lovably crazy kids, "Someone let the candles dwindle again." He grumbled as he opened the door to a darkened room. Luckily, he came prepared this time. So after making some light he undressed and lowered himself into the sunken baths to let the warm water sooth his aching musc-

"Toph?!" he shouted in surprise as he saw the earthbender floating in the center of the baths. So many things were wrong with this picture. One, this was the men's bathhouse. Two, she hated swimming, and floating (she'd only learned enough to keep herself from drowning). Three, she was in the baths fully clothed...actually that one he was grateful for. And Four, she didn't even acknowledge him, "Toph, a little privacy?!"

"Sure, just shut the door behind you." She waved him off. His mouth dropped.

"Toph, you're in the men's bathhouse."

"Yeah, I know." Wait a second, that reply wasn't the least bit mean or sarcastic. She sounded detached, and really sad. Maybe he was wrong about her. This seemed serious.

"What's the matter, Toph?"

"Just leave me alone, Sokka."

"Okay, I leave you alone." He slowly waded through the stomach deep waters, "Just as soon as you tell me what's wrong." He said quickly, scooping her up in his arms, "Tell me or I'll dunk ya." He threatened.

"Put me down!"

"Wrong answer!" He lowered her into the water, she came up sputtering and cussing and squirming, but he held a firm grip, "Tell me!"

"Leave me alone!" She roared, a colorful word was cut off as she went under again.

"Tell me!" This time she decked him, lucky for him she couldn't get enough swing to do any damage. He went to put her under again,

"I'm pregnant!" _Splash! _Sokka had dropped her in surprise.

"Sorry, Toph!" He ducked under the water and helped her to her feet, not an easy task as she was a little disoriented, "You're...you're...this is great!" He pulled her into a gopherbear hug, "I saw this great Earthkingdom style crib the other day and I thought to myself, 'Self, if Toph had a baby, we'd go straight in there and buy that for her'. Now you're having one, and that crib is coming to ya courtesy of Uncle Sokka." He rambled on in the same motherly tone Katara had used.

"Humph."

"Hey, wait a second. What are you doing here? You should be with your husband celebrating this little miracle here." He patted her stomach for good measure. Only to be shoved into the water.

"What's wrong with you people?! This isn't good news!"

"Huh?" He splashed around until he regained his footing, "But Toph, weren't you two trying for a baby?"

"A few years ago." She sighed, "But to tell you the truth... I was relieved when Katara said I couldn't have kids. I mean, look at me! I'm a cop, it's my dream job because I get paid to fight, yell and boss people around. Does any of that scream 'mother material' to you?" She looked down sadly, "Sugar Queen is 'mother'. She sings lullabies and kisses boo boos. I don't even know any lullabies, and if the kid scrapes his knee I'll probably tell him to suck it up. I'm going to be the worst mother ever."

"Toph, you're really freaking out, I get it. But you're selling yourself short." He tried to reason with her.

"I am not! I don't know how to be like Katara, and I don't wanna be like my mother."

"Listen to me." He grabbed her shoulders, "You're Toph, the toughest person I know, you don't give up."

"I don't need to be tough." tears started pouring down her cheeks, "I need to be s-soft and pat-patient and everything else I'm, I'm not."

"Hey, it'll be okay." He wiped the tears off her face, "Don't measure yourself against Katara and Aang, they're abnormal. When I found out I was going to be a father, I panicked, just like you. I didn't know the first thing about being a daddy. And Zuko, he threw up he was so nervous, look what kind of father he had. But we're both doing alright. Just take it one day at a time and you'll be surprised how quickly you learn from the little bugger. Besides," he scratched his chin, "your kid lucked out, he's got a whole lot of experienced aunts and uncles to run to when his overbearing mother decides to act like a fur-less badgermole. Ouch!" He rubbed his arm, but smiled like a fool. A sucker punch to the arm was the sure sign of a good talk.

"You're stupid, Meathead." She practically tackled him and locked him in a crushing hug. It was at this particular time he remembered that he was, in fact, naked.

"Uh, Toph?" Didn't she even notice?

"What?" She sniffed. Apparently she didn't, or she just needed a hug too much to care.

"...I won't tell anyone that you were crying..." That's it, he was officially a chickenhog.

* * *

"Yeah, I didn't even realize that Snoozles was naked until I let him go. About an hour later." A laugh graced her hears, but it was the kind of laugh that had a tear or two in it as well.

"Never told Dad about that, did you?"

"You nuts? 'Hey sweetie, I was nervous about motherhood so I cuddled with my naked best friend in a bath for an hour or so'. No, that part I left out. He didn't even ask where I'd been or why I was dripping wet, he leaned out the window and yelled, 'I'm going to be a father! Woohoo!'." She shook her head, "I'm so glad that one of us was excited because frankly kid, you scared the hell outta me. But it all ended okay. Turns out I got the best kid in the world."

"Thank you." Lin was becoming afraid of where this was going, "Can I go now?"

"Uh-uh. First, what did we learn?" Toph sang.

"Don't run from your mistakes?" She knew that wasn't right, but she really didn't want to carry on this conversation.

"No, dunderhead. What's the matter with you? You were an accident, not a mistake."

"There's a difference?"

"You can accidentally do something great. The moral of the story is that you never know what'll be the best thing to happen in your life. I never wanted a kid, but when I finally got you that all changed. Same with you, I guess."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm not trying to say anything. What I'm saying is that we both know that boy isn't going to an orphanage. So you can quit acting like he is."

"You gonna take him in?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, refusing to let her mother volunteer her for this.

"Me? No. Thought about it, but I'm too old to raise another kid. Nice try, Lin, but you're not getting outta it that easy. Besides, you need him more."

"I-"

"You bonded with the boy. He trusts you, you care about him. It's a done deal." And so the battle begins. Advance.

"He's just some street kid." Attack.

"And you don't want to let him out of your sight." Counter-attack.

"He's too cheerful and goofy." Block.

"Kinda reminds you of Twinkle toes and Meathead." Side swipe.

"He's not safe with me." Dodge, "All it would take is one criminal with a grudge."

"He's not safe on the streets either, you know that. At best he'll be recruited into a Triad, where he'll get himself killed fighting other Triads." Low-blow.

"He'll stay in a orphanage if his brother does." Leg sweep.

"Lin, I raised you to face the facts. Not to fool yourself." Knee to stomach. "Those boys escaped the orphanage together and they'll do it again. Like it or not, their best shot is with you." Headlock.

"That's another thing, I can't take care of one kid, let alone two." Tap out. Battle over. Winner and still Champion: Toph Beifong.

"So when you find the other one you can hire yourself some help." Toph said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, "It's not like you can't afford it."

"I just can't do it, Mom."

"You're too harsh, too commanding, too impatient."

"Yes."

"So am I."

"But you have a good since of humor."

"But unlike me, you're not the slightest bit selfish. So we're even. Look Lin, I'll level with you. I'm worried that you'll be alone when I'm gone." She pointed at Lin before she could get another word out, "And don't start in with the 'oh you have plenty of years ahead of you' speech, I'm sick of it. I'm not Kyoshi."

"You'll be too stubborn to admit that your dead." She couldn't resist.

"Haha. I'll die, kid, just like everyone else. But when I think back you know what I remember? You're first step, ten-months-old in the Jasmine Dragon, you wanted to pull Iroh's beard again. Your first kiss, five-years-old, Tenzin pecked you on the lips and got decked for his trouble. The day you vandalized the gaang's statues in City Hall, ten-years-old, you wanted to show me that you were better than my officers so you broke in, changed the nameplates, and evaded arrest for an hour. What are you going to remember?"

"You. And dad."

"When your dad was murdered? When you got those scars? When you got married? When your husband was killed in action? When you and Tenzin started dating just to get the family off your back...don't think we didn't know about the scam, kid. How about when the two of you actually fell in love? When he broke it off?"

"Shut up!" She clenched her fists. This time her mother had gone too far. "My life hasn't been all bad. I have plenty of good memories!"

"But no one to share them with. Listen, when you get to be my age you're gonna want someone to share the good memories and distract from the bad ones. That's what kids are for, they're obligated to sit through every single pointless, exaggerated, dumb story you can still remember." She stood up and gave her last bit of wisdom, "It's your decision, but one way or another, you'll have to live with it for the rest of your life so you better think really hard about what you're gonna do next."


	8. Preliminaries

"Wakey, wakey!" Bolin sang as he jumped on her bed. Lin cracked one eye open to see that the sun hadn't even begun to rise. Nope, no 'wakey, wakey' yet.

"No! Go back to sleep, Boy." Lin grumbled, closing her eyes as tight as she could. There was no way she was getting up this early. She wasn't a morning person by any means and since taking Bolin into her home she found out that a full night's sleep was the greatest joy a caregiver could ask for. So, now that she was on a mother-enforced vacation, Lin decided she was going to sleep in for once.

"But the Earth Rumble's today." He whined, trying to roll her off the bed without success.

"It's just a preliminary. And it's ToNIGHT! Let me sleep, or I'll feed you to the wolfbats."

"Nuh-uh." He wouldn't be falling for that trick anymore. _Damn shame_, Lin thought to herself. Life was so much easier when the kid thought she'd really kill him. Well, it seemed that he was far too excited to listen to commands and he wouldn't think twice about any punishment that she could deliver. One option left, bribery.

"Kid, go back to sleep for an hour and I'll let you have coffee with breakfast."

"Really?" That tasty drink Lin said he wouldn't touch again as long as she lived...cool, "Deal!" He flopped on the bed and wormed his way under her arm.

"Uggh. Kid, you're all elbows." She groaned as he got situated and breathed a small sigh of relief when he finally settled down. Oh Lin knew she was going to regret that deal later, but right now she didn't care. She found herself quickly drifting off to the land of unconsciousness before a malevolent creature that feasts upon human suffering burst into the room.

"Good morning Beifong family!" Toph yelled as loud as her lungs would allow. Bolin perked up because he knew that Grammy Toph was going to be on his side. Lin grimaced because she knew that this was the end of her rest...and the owner of the inn might kick them out for this after the other costumers complained.

"Go away."

"Fine. C'mon Half Pint, we'll let the bed bug over there have her beauty sleep."

"Can I Lin?" He put on his best pout, not that she could see it through her closed eyelids.

"I don't care, just let me sleep."

"Okay!" he sprinted towards the door, grabbing the old bender's hand and let her lead him out of the room, "Where we goin'?"

"If we're lucky, we can make it to last call at the Corner Tavern." Toph grinned, three...two...one...

"THE HELL YOU WILL!" Thumps and the rustling of cloth were heard, but they just kept walking. Soon Lin stormed up and took Bolin's hand away from Toph's because there was no doubt in her mind that her mother would make good on that threat.

"Nice of you to join us, Pup." The matriarch didn't even try to sweeten that evil smile of hers. The boy looked at his guardian and frowned,

"Do I still get coffee?"

"Not a chance." This wouldn't be a good morning to give Bolin that particular drink. If she did someone, either her for giving him the drink or her mother for not letting her get the sleep needed to deal with a hyperactive boy, would die.

"Well, I'll go find something for breakfast, you two go train." Toph didn't give her tired daughter or (always) hungry grandson a chance to argue or even beg.

"Crone." Lin muttered as she crossed her arms.

"Hardass!" Her mother sang from down the hall, "I'm blind, not deaf."

"Good!"

"Lin, can I _please_ go with Grammy? I'm _starving_ to death!"

"I gotta suffer, then so do you, kid." She took his hand and started towards the nearby canyon, "Let's get this over with."...

"When am I gonna learn to see with my feet?" Bolin asked as he got into a sloppy horse stance. Kid should be happy that she'd waited for the light so he wasn't stumbling around and running into things, what she would've given to have daylight be a mainstay of her training.

"When I say so." If it were up to her mother, seismic sense would have been the first thing he learned, but Lin believed that the kid should at least know the basic earthbending moves before she put a blindfold on him and used him for target practice, "Now let's work on that stance. If I didn't know better, I'd think you were an airbender."

* * *

"Is it about to start?" He was so bored. Why couldn't they just start fighting already?

"In a few minutes. For the sixth time." Lin wondered if she was this annoying when her mother took her to see her first match.

"Kiddo," Toph decided to intervene before her daughter blew up, "what's the first rule of earthbending?"

"Wait and listen." He recited.

"So what do you think you oughta do?"

"Wait?" He guessed.

"Atta boy." Ten...nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one...

"When is it starting?"

"Never, kid." Lin couldn't help it, the boy was getting on her last nerve.

"Really?" Fear gripped the heart of the little boy. Spirits, Bolin was gullible. They were going to have work on that.

"Sarcasm, Boy."

"Welcome everyone, to the second week of the Earth Rumble Preliminaries! I'm your host Qing Yuan!"

"It's finally starting!" Bolin pointed and laughed. Finally something _fun_.

"Yes kid, _finally_." Toph laughed as Lin rolled her eyes, but if someone where to look very hard, they might see a smile trying to claw it's way on to the stoic woman's face.

"Our first match for the evening, 'Stone Feng' vs the 'Rabaroo Kid'!" The crowed cheered as the two fighters took to the ring.

"'The Rabaroo Kid'?" Toph sneered, "What kind of fighting name is that?"

"Like you have any room to talk, Blind Bandit?" She countered.

"Shut your mouth, girl, that is the coolest fighting name ever. At least it's not a fluffy animal name." Yes, that was one point couldn't be argued with.

"Whoa." Bolin watched with wide eyes as Stone Feng pined the Rabaroo Kid's arm the ground then threw the ground out of the ring. He laughed as the man sailed through the air before landed outside the ring.

"Stoney ain't half bad. But," she turned to the general direction of the loser, "Rabaroo, change the name! 'The Rabaroo Kid' sounds like an airbending six-year-old!" The audience laughed with her. Lin felt a pang of pity for the guy as she saw him run away, but that was just part of the sport.

"Our next match, Desert Heat vs Bashing Aki!"

"You call that a match?" the former champion yelled after an admittedly pathetic fight. "You two losers don't know a rock from a pebble!" And that was how the rest of the show went. Bolin stayed memorized by the bending, Toph kept heckling the fighters, Lin kept rolling her eyes. Finally they had the special show for the evening, team fighting. After her mother 'congratulated' the winning team, remarking how clever it was to tell puns that made the other team _want_ to pound their own heads against a rock, the fighters finally had enough.

"Hey old woman, why don't you come down here and say that to our faces?!" The Shifty Shirshu shouted, oblivious to the danger he was putting himself in.

"With pleasure!" She strutted up to the ring, "You two are so annoying, I'm going for a knock out just to shut you up."

"You? You're just a stone-ile old woman." The Laughing Hyenashark barked. "You wanna tumble with the rumblers?

"I thought you'd never ask." The unrecognized woman cackled and got into a stance...a somewhat familiar stance.

"A challenger!" Qing Yuan shouted gleefully as gasps were heard. Not that he expected a fight, surely a woman so...seasoned...wouldn't try to go against young Earth Rumblers. While the fighting team was trying to decide whether or not they should put the old woman in her place Toph blew up her bangs impatiently. The Laughing Hyenashark immediately jumped behind his partner.

"We can't fight her." He squeaked. He, unlike the spectators in the high stands or the host on his perch, got a good look at her eyes.

"No, no." Sweat appeared on The Shifty Shirshu's brow, "I mean, it's not fair." The crowd seemed to agree, watching young men and women getting the daylights knocked out of them was one thing, but seeing a little old lady get knocked around was something else entirely. In the low stands, a woman was taking off her boots for some strange reason.

"Yeah, you should go get five or six guys to help you out, then I might actually get a decent workout." Toph smirked. But the host only thought her as senile and he had to stop it from getting any worse.

"The rules are clear!" He jumped into the ring, "This is Team Fighting, sorry Ma'am but-"

"Girl, get in here!" She yelled, seemingly to nobody.

"Stay right here, Kid." Lin instructed as she stood up and headed for the ring, tying a blindfold around her head as she went.

"A blindfolded earthbender?" Even the Blind Bandit could see the light in the host's eyes as he spotted Lin's telltale scars and put the pieces together. After a quick peek beneath Toph's bangs Qing Yuan addressed the crowd,

"Ladies and Gentlemen! We have a surprise for you this evening. A challenge, on the right side of the ring... The Shifty Shirshu and The Laughing Hyenashark," who were shaking their heads and waving their arms in protest, "and on the left side of the ring, the woman who holds the record as the youngest Earth Rumble Champion, Lin Beifong...'The Dodger'!" the applause was thundering, "And now Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my honor to present the greatest Earthbender in the world, no... in History, the Mother of Metalbending herself, Toph Beifong...'The Blind Bandit'!" And when you thought the noise couldn't get any louder, it did. People were on their feet, clapping and shouting and Toph was loving every second of it.

...

"Wow, I can't wait to tell Asami! You two did this," he jumped on his bed and punched the air, "and this," he almost fell trying to do a leg sweep, "and then they went out outside of the room."

"Gotta hand it to ya Dodger," Toph punched her on the arm, "you got good aim."

"Wish you coulda saw their faces as the flew outta the entrance." Lin smirked, happy that she'd pulled off the blindfold just in time to see the mix of shock and pain on their opponent's faces. Toph chuckled as they both reclined against the wall and watched (sorta felt) Bolin try to recreate the bending moves on the bed.

"Yeah, I always said I don't care about sight, but I would like to see their faces when they realized they got their asses handed to them by a blind midget." Typical, some blind people wish they could see what their family looks like, Toph wishes she could see the humiliation of her beaten opponents.

"An _old_ blind midget."

"Watch it, girl. I may be old, but I can still beat you into the ground." The old blind midget threatened.

"Hey, can you teach me to do that stuff?" Bolin rejoined the conversation, falling to the bed after tiring himself out.

"Kid, I'm training you. Of course you'll learn that stuff. Now it's time for bed."

"But I'm not tired." He didn't look it, but he had to be with the full day he'd had.

"Too bad, Half Pint." Toph kissed his forehead and ruffled his hair like always, "Pup, if you need me, I'll be at the Corner Tavern."

"I'm not bailing you out again." Lin thought that maybe if she gave fair warning that her mother might behave herself.

"Hag." Wishful thinking.

"Midget." Ah, the mother/daughter relationship...beautiful isn't it?

"Lin," Bolin called from his bed after Toph left, "why do you and Grammy call each other names?"

"Because that's how Beifongs show affection." She replied without even thinking.

"What's affection?" That was one question Lin chose not to answer.

"Never mind. It's just how we are, Kid. We don't mean a word of it." She pulled the covers out and threw them over his head, he always found that funny for some reason, "Now go to sleep."

"Do you love your mom?" What kind of question was that?

"Of course, we're family."

"Do you love me?"

"We're family, aren't we?" She asked. He nodded, "There's your answer."

"But-"

"Goodnight, Boy." She said with a warning in her tone, this conversation was over.

"Goodnight, Mom." Bolin looked just as surprised as she was. In fact, he hunkered a little like he expected her to scold him. But she was at a loss, so picked her chin off the floor, cleared her throat and went to her own bed for the night.


	9. Parent(s)

"Hey Lin, watch this!" Bolin slowed his pace until he was behind her with a look of mischief in his eyes. She could only brace herself for impact as Bolin propelled himself with a piece of earth and landed on her back.

"Yeesh, Kid, do I look like an ostrich horse to you?" She asked, though she didn't order him to get down, in fact she put his arms into a firm position around her neck and leaned forward slightly to keep him from falling before continuing to walk. He was silent for a moment or two, obviously debating weather or not his answer would be worth his mom's wrath.

"Yes."

"Excuse me?"

"Giddy up, ostrich horsey!" He laughed. If only her men could see her now. Speaking of which, they _didn't_ see her now, did they? She scanned the area to make sure that there was no trace of law enforcement on the street.

"Giddy up? Oh I'll show you 'Giddy up'." She jumped up to the nearby zip line. Of course, those lines were _supposed_ to be used only for police business, but Lin knew that despite what her officers might swear to in court, she wouldn't be the first cop that ever took their kid for a joy ride. Just as long as she cleared the path if anyone on duty came her way, nothing would be said.

"Woohoo, faster!" Bolin cheered. After using her cables to make a quick safety rig for the boy she sped up. The faster they went, the faster he told her to go. Brave little bugger, she'd give him that. The only problem with speeding up was that the ride was over too quickly for the little Beifong's tastes, "Let's do that again." he said when they reached the end of the zip line system.

"Come on, Kid," she wasn't even entertaining the thought, "we go the rest of the way on foot."

"Where we goin'?"

"My mom's house, Kid. And we're already late, so quick march." A small shove got the boy moving,

"We're gonna look for Mako later, right?"

"Of course." Like she could forget.

"If we find him, I'm gonna give him the top bunk and-"

"We'll decide that later." If she didn't stop him, he'd go on and on about his plans. And the more elaborate his plans, the more disappointed he'd be if they didn't find his brother.

...

"Surprise!" Bolin's jumped as a large group of people shouted at him.

"Happy birthday, Kid." Lin placed a hand on his shoulder.

"It's my birthday? Cool!" A collective chuckle was shared by the adults.

"Go on, play with your friends." The second Bolin saw Asami in the crowd the game began,

"I'll capture you and your avatar, Katara! My honor will be restored!"

"Not today, Prince Zuko!" Asami proudly declared before taking off with Bolin and the other children on her heels.

"Hey! Take it outside, kids!" Toph shouted at the children. The sound of raging rhinos steered toward the back door at the order. One last word could be heard from the 'prince' on their way out.

"HONOR!" Coughs, snickers and unapologetic bellowing laughter filled the air as everyone looked to former Firelord Zuko, who was trying to hide his embarrassment in the corner...and failing miserably.

"You're his favorite war hero, Uncle Zuko." She tried to save a shred of his dignity.

"Oh goody." he cleared his throat, "You were called into the station today?"

"Nice change of subject, Sparky."

"Yes I was, Uncle." she glared at her mom, why, she'll never know.

"Anything to worry 'bout?" Toph suddenly became serious.

"No, Mom. Rumors of a new triad trying to make it's mark on the city, but nothing concrete."

"Well, if there's nothing to do but wait," a hairy man jumped into the center of the crowd, "then let's eat. I'm starving!"

"You're always starving, Bumi." His sister sighed.

"I'm serious. I could eat a whole mooselion. Just like that time in the Southern Earth Kingdom. It's was raining, we hadn't eaten in three days-"

"Why don't we just call the kids back in?"

_Knock, Knock_

"Junior and Broodmare?"

"I told them to come." Jaws collectively dropped. And here they thought she was predicable. No, the answer to everyone's question was no. They hadn't made peace with each other just yet. She and Pema decided that they were even the night Jinora was born. Tenzin hadn't returned from fetching various family members, including the two waterbenders who where supposed to deliver the baby. At dusk Lin found the acolyte doubled over in pain near the bison caves. After carrying the woman to her bedroom bridal style (Pema tells anyone that and, prized airbender broodmare or not, she's dead), the frightened woman begged her to stay and be the hand-holder. So any pain Lin might have caused Pema had been returned in kind. The proof was in her ringing ears and throbbing hand.

Tenzin was a different story, she owed him a beating for what he'd done, and even then he was getting off easy. But instead of just taking his punishment like a man, he kept avoiding her in secluded areas and tried to renew their friendship in public places where he knew she had to play nice. Did he honestly think that she'd forget about it if he dodged her long enough? Chump. She was an earthbender, _wait and listen_. She'd get him. Then, and only then, would she even consider becoming _acquaintances _again. All that being said, family was family and unfortunately, Tenzin and Pema happen to be in the same one she's in. So they were both invited to any and all family gatherings. Damn the luck.

...

"Have you seen this boy?" Lin showed Mako's flyer to everyone passing by while Bolin did the same thing on the other side of the street. Soon it'd start getting dark, which was the time Bolin said that his brother usually returned, so they'd check as many alleys as they could before nightfall. She wanted to believe they'd find the kid, but she didn't get her hopes up, unlike his brother. They just had nothing to go on. Mako was just another street kid, no one would remember him, and most street kids hid from the police. She could, and did, catch a few and got them to talk, that was easy enough, but finding one who could lead them to Mako was more difficult than it sounded.

"Come on, Kid. Time to hit the alleyways." One after another, a failure. A seismic scan always told her the same thing. As the street lamps fired up, she said it was time for them to go. And as always, he begged her to check just one more. And as always, she did, "Just some guy rounding up animals."

"Really?" He ran into the alley before she could grab him.

"Bolin!" She quickly ran after him and grabbed him by the collar.

"Don't you ever run off like that again!" She spun him around and knelt down to his level, "Do you under stand me?!" he nodded frantically.

"So...whatdaya doin'?" he asked the man in the shadows.

"Trying to round up these fire ferrets." He grunted as a kit slipped through his fingers. Bolin caught the little animal,

"Aw, he's cute. Aren't ya, little guy? You gonna keep them all?" He asked as he handed the little creature to it's new owner while Lin watched cautiously.

"Well, yes." he put the kit in the cage with the rest of the litter, "At least until they're big enough to make a decent meal for my pythonaconda."

"You're gonna kill him?!"

"Bolin, don't be like that." Lin scolded, "You eat chickenhogs, a pythonaconda eats fire ferrets."

"And anything else it can fit into it's mouth." The man agreed,

"Could I at least have that one?" he pointed to the one he'd caught.

"Bolin..."

"Well, I do sell pets for a living so I'll tell you what. You give me five yuans and I'll let you have him."

"Lin...can I please have him? I'll feed him and everything. It is my birthday and you didn't get me a present and" he rambled on but lost her at present. Yes, as a matter of fact she did get him a present, she just hadn't given it to him yet. But... she had been back and forth whether or not to wait until he was a little older when he might appreciate it a little more. And now he was pouting and begging her to take a rodent into her house...he may be so excited she wouldn't have to see that heartbroken look tonight when they returned home and well...

"...and he's an orphan, like me." he just had to use that against her, didn't he?

"...I suppose it'll teach you responsibility." She pulled out five yuans and handed it to the pet salesman.

"So I can have him? Thank you, thank you, thank you." He gleefully took his new pet out of the cage.

"It's time to go home." she grabbed one of his hands and led him back to the street, "I can't believe I agreed to let you have that rodent."

"He's not a rodent, he's a ferret."

"Like I said, a rodent." The trip back home consisted of Bolin naming the animal, then deciding that a different name would be better...again and again and again until Lin wanted to shout 'pick something already!'. But she was proud to say that she held her tongue until they walked through the door, "Alright, Boy, here's the rules. One: you take care of him, you feed him, train him and clean him. Two: he doesn't step foot into my room or the library. If that thing gets on my bed or eats one of my books, I'll feed him to a pythonaconda myself. Understood?"

"Uh-huh." he clenched the kit protectively.

"Good, now find an old blanket for that thing to sleep on."

"He can sleep in my bed." Problem solved.

"No he can't."

"But-"

"I said 'no'. And first thing after breakfast tomorrow, you're giving it a bath."

"Okay." He sighed dramatically, opening up the closet to find a blanket, "We should build a fire to warm him up."

"It's a week away from summer. It's plenty warm."

"Well he might be cold."

"Kid." a tired moan escaped her mouth. She was already regretting this, "He's covered in fur, he'll be _fine_. Go play with him in your room." He wordless trudged up the stairs, still convinced that they should put the kit in front of a crackling fire. Lin rolled her eyes and headed to her small library, picked out a book and sat down. She used to lounge in front of a fireplace and read to her mom, '_Believe it or not_' her mom would say, '_not **all** brutes are dumb'_. She laughed because people described her as a 'wise thug' and she'd given birth to an 'intellectual brute'. They were quite a set. That reading habit evolved into a relaxing hobby, hence the library...with her job she needed something to calm her nerves a lot.

"Whatcha reading?" Bolin whispered after 'sneaking' into the room.

"Legends of the Earth Kingdom."

"Hmm...yeah, that sounds good." he flopped down next to her.

"What about the rodent?"

"He fell asleep, I can't play with him until tomorrow." Well if he was staying, she'd have to go back to a more kid friendly chapter. Koh the face stealer would likely give the kid nightmares.

"Alright." She flipped to the front page, "The first earthbenders were the badgermoles. These creatures taught the skill to a pair of lovers that were separated by a great war between their villages. After the lovers-"

"You're really nice, sometimes." Bolin grinned. '_Sometimes, thanks kid_'.

"And you're really quiet, sometimes." she went back to the book, "After the lovers learned the art of bending, they created a-"

"Hey Lin?"

"Yes, Boy?"

"You're my mom now, right?" It sounded like an simple question, but to the chief it was anything but. She closed the book, there was no way they'd be getting back to it now.

"Kid, you're mom and dad are always going to be your parents." Maybe she should give it to him now, "Wait here." She retrieved the gift she had made for him, "Open it." Luckily she'd already gotten advice from several people about this inevitable conversation.

"It's-"

"Your family." She gave him a portrait of his family. She wanted to give him the picture in the police report, but that would be illegal, so she'd taken a picture of the picture and had an artist recreate it, "This is your family, and this always will be, you don't ever forget that. Got it?"

"Yes."

"We're family, too. And don't you ever forget that either. Got it?"

"Yes."

"You can have two mothers if you want, kid, but you always remember that this woman had you first and there's no way I can replace her." She needed to make this clear, "You know what replace means, right?"

"Uh-huh." He sniffed. He was trying to be tough, like she'd taught him. But in the end he hugged her and cried.

"It's okay, Kid."

"I miss them." he sobbed.

"I know." The tears lasted until he started to hiccup, "Come on, dry it up." She said softly...well softly for her.

"You'll be m-my m-mom, too?" He let her go and looked her in the eyes.

"If you want."

"O-okay, M-Mom." He nodded, holding out his hand. She nodded, and extended her arm.

"Okay, Son." They shook on it. And he tackled her into a hug.


	10. Dear Mako

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_ I had my birthday yesterday. I am seven. I got us a mom. She shares us with our mommy and daddy. I got a pet, I call him Pabu._**

_Lin drowsily headed for the kitchen for her morning coffee when she heard something crash upstairs. Suddenly wide awake, she flew up the stairs and readied herself to fight off any intruder, but she only saw a broken lamp on one end of the hallway and a guilty boy and his pet on the other. Her first instinct was 'kill the rodent', but on further inspection she saw a piece of wood in the mess._

_"It didn't come back." Bolin gave a meek grin,_

**_I got a boomerang, mom did not like it. I am grounded now. We will find you soon. Love Bolin. _**Bolin folded the paper and held his arm out his window, trusting the late spring wind to carry it to his brother.

* * *

**_Dear Mako, _**

**_Mom says it is your birthday. You are nine. Happy birthday big brother._**

_"Mom," he gaped at the pair as they walked through the door, "is Uncle Tenzin alright?" _

_"He fell down."_

_"The stairs." The airbender added._

_"Wait and listen, Airhead." Lin said with a smirk._

**_Uncle Tenzin has black eyes. He fell down the steps. I will see you soon. Love Bolin._**

* * *

**_Dear Mako, _**

**_I am eight today. Mom took me to see some benders._**

_"Now sit still, Kid, let them get used to you." His mother instructed. He was a little scared, he was sitting in a dark cave and his seismic sense wasn't all that great yet. So when he felt something nudge him, he jumped a little and whoever it was backed off, "Stay still. Take a deep breath, Son. She won't hurt you."_

_"Okay." Bolin obediently took a few deep breaths. The bender came back up to him and sniffed him. Suddenly, a large tongue licked his head, "It's a badgermole. And she likes me." he grinned._

_"You manage to keep yourself grounded for a few minutes, you might even learn something."_

_"Really?" He grinned. How cool would that be?_

_"No better earthbending teacher than a badgermole."_

_"Sweet!" The large animal moved away from his loud voice, "Oops."_

_"You've been spending too much time with your grandmother."_

**_They were badgermoles! I got to learn from badgermoles. Just like Grammy. See you soon. Love Bolin._**

* * *

**_Dear Mako, _**

**_Asami said she didn't want to play with me no more. _**

_He got to spend the whole day at Asami's house while his mom was at work. They'd played tag, hide and seek, thumb wars, all the usual games. Then Asami wanted to play dress up. He wore her dad's hat while she went to borrow the maid's makeup. _

_"How do I look?" _

**_I made fun of her dress and makeup. Mom made me say sorry. But she was still mad. You and me can still play when we find you. Love Bolin._**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Asami played with me today! Then I said she looks pretty. Then we played Avatar. She was Zuko's sister, I was Sokka with my boomerang. She got me. We can all play together when we find you. Love Bolin._**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_I turned nine today. The party was fun, I got some great presents. But Mom and Grammy don't like the people that live with Uncle Tenzin and Aunt Pema very much._**

_Three generations of Beifongs stood in the airbender training grounds, doing their best to demolish it with their earthbending. Toph and Lin were currently 'demonstrating' offensive and defensive moves while Bolin stood on the side, mimicking their movements and throwing child-sized rocks at vicious enemy trees. _

_"Pup, Rhyolite, heads up." Toph called timeout. The badgermole and volcanic rock took off their blindfolds as an old man stormed up to them._

_"What is the meaning of this?!" He bellowed in an authoritative tone._

_"You're still alive? Hey look Lin, it's Father Superior." While not as mean-spirited as she was, her daughter still chuckled._

_"Thought he keeled over years ago." This guy always rubbed her the wrong way. 'Bad example...teaching the future hope of airbenders violence and disobedience and destruction'. She never told Tenzin to join her in her rebellion, how was any of that her fault?  
_

_"You will stop this right now!"_

_"Why?" Bolin asked, totally confused as to what they were doing wrong._

_"This place is meant to train airbenders, not earthbenders. So quit earthbending!" _

_"Who's gonna stop us?"_

_"I will call the police and have you taken into custody." Apparently, he didn't think that threat through. Lin smirked, Toph laughed._

_"Where you gonna find any officers dumb enough to try it?" The eldest Beifong countered. He opened his mouth, but his brain started working again. _

_"Erugh, humph." He stomped off, "Go destroy your own property!"_

_"Why? We're having a lot of fun destroying this one!" Getting into a word battle with Toph, something only the truly skilled talker should do._

_"Let's clean up this mess and get ready for the party."_

**_I don't know why they were mean to the man, but he was mean first. We won't bend at Uncle Tenzin's when he's around. See you soon._**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Happy birthday. You must be getting big! We keep looking for you, but we can't find you. I hope we find you soon. Love, your little brother._**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Mom's working a lot. She says there are some bad guys that are making trouble on the streets._**

_"You got those bets, Ash?" __Mako went by an alias now. Ever since he lost his brother and Chief Beifong took him in, the cops had been after him. The only explanation his eleven-year-old mind could come up with is that he'd been sold out by his brother. At first he didn't wanna believe it, then he saw posters go up...he was a wanted man._

_"Yeah, right here." He handed the money over to Shady Shin and waited for his payment._

_"Hey, forget that!" Two Toed Ping shouted from the other room. Shady Shin left without giving him a yuan._

_"Hey!"_

_"Get outta here, kid." He said before sliding the door closed behind him. _

_"Something big's about to happen. We still might be able to get in on the-" Mako knew it was time to leave, with or without his money. Bad things happened to people who heard too much._

**_Be safe or come home. Love, Bolin._**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Grammy's dead. Mom's hurt pretty bad. I'm scared._**


	11. Acts of Courage

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Grammy's dead. Mom's hurt pretty bad. I'm scared._**

"Mom? Is it _ever_ gonna stop storming?" Bolin asked from his spot on his mother's office floor.

"No." She replied grumpily, not even looking up from her paperwork.

"Come on, when's it gonna stop?" He asked again, wanting a serious answer. Adults always knew these things, why did they never share the information?

"Just as soon as you quit complaining about it." she finally looked over to see him staring out of the window, "Have you finished your homework yet?" He didn't answer, but the sounds of scribbles against the floor was all the answer she needed. After a half-a-minute of childish fuming, Bolin started humming a tune while he went about his work, and inevitably started singing it. It was a song that had been familiar to Lin since she was young enough for lullabies,

_"I'm alone in the world, and my luck's runnin' low,_

_The trail's so hard with such a long way to go._

_I got no sunshine, and I got no moon,_

_no reinforcements to save me from doom._

_But I don't fear the dark or any risk that comes along,_

_because I'm blind as a wolfbat and twice as strong."_

Her mother use to sing it to her before she went to sleep, it wasn't until she was sixteen that she found out that her favorite childhood lullaby was actually an Earth Kingdom tavern song. At the time it infuriated her to no end that her mother did that, but looking back Lin only wondered why it surprised her. This was the same woman who told the City Council that if any of _her_ officers were hurt because of _their_ new anti-brutality laws she was going to take her cables and shove every square inch of them straight up their asses...yeah, once she thought about it, it all made sense.

"Chief! We got word that the Shuang Gou Dam is faltering!" Lin jumped to her feet, and started out the door.

"Get rescue teams to warn and evacuate any citizens in the river's path! Call in every officer who isn't is a hostile district. Then call in every off duty water and earthbender! Have all earthbenders deepen the widen the riverbed! Asiaq!" she yelled at the highest ranking watertribe captain, "Take your team to the dam and stop all the water you can, travel by river, it's the fastest way. Saikhan, have the other waterbenders stream as much water from the river into the ocean as possible." they had to make room for the tons of water that might be coming through, "Send someone to alert the hospitals. When you're done with that, bring your team to the dam."

"What can I do, Mom?" He caught up to her as she got to the zip lines.

"Stay here, Son." Lin called down to him.

"I can help."

"You want to help? Don't try to be a hero." It wouldn't surprise her if he thought about coming after her. "Don't follow me." With that last order she took off. The Shuang Gou Dam was located about five miles Southeast of Republic City, and despite that distance if it were to burst hundreds of people could be killed. She couldn't let that happen. She went as fast as her bending would allow despite the danger of using the zip lines while wearing her armor during a thunderstorm. As soon as she reached the end of the lines she rode an earth wave the rest of the way.

When she got within seismic range of the dam, she found her mother had already heard and beaten her there, her fingers buried in the stone, trying desperately to keep the crumbling dam together. While she was doing that Asiaq's team was trying to plug the holes by freezing the water as it came through, but the water pressure was too much, the ice broke almost as soon as it froze. It was already clear that only a avatar could fix this.

"Lin, the dam's gonna go!" Toph shouted as Lin reached her destination.

"We have to give them time!" Lin yelled as she propelled herself to the other side of the river. The rain had made the ground slick with mud, she quickly compressed enough ground to get a strong foothold, dug her fingers in and braced herself, "Come on, Saikhan, hurry up!" she groaned as she literately tried to hold back a flood. The pressure grew and grew while the ten benders held the structure in place with all their might.

Suddenly there was a deafening crash from the other side of the dam. Lin was assaulted by a barrage of rocks and pressurized water and was thrown into the nearby tree line. As she flew back, the half that she'd been holding crumbled. She was immediately swept away in the current. As the water pushed her along, Lin felt all sorts of debris pound into her armor. She couldn't swim, her uniform was too heavy to let her. She couldn't bend it off, she was too busy being tossed around like a rag doll. This was the end. As a last resort she bended her cables in what she hoped was upward to try to catch them on something, then unfortunately she was hit in the head by a tree limb and blacked out.

...

"Near suffocation." the medics explained to Councilman Tenzin as the Chief's next-of-kin had yet to arrive at the hospital, "Major Head injury, multiple body injuries including broken leg, collar bone, four ribs, foot-"

"Will she be alright?"

"We don't know yet. It's a miracle that she even made it this far."

"May I see her?"

"No. I'm sorry, but she's still in the intensive care."

"Thank you." He sighed and resisted the urge to yell. The woman was just doing her job, and it was hard enough today without him keeping her from it and yelling, "Where is Toph?" he asked himself, "I need to tell her this." In all probability, Toph was over by the city limits, helping put up the last of the flood barriers...but he supposed that trying Headquarters couldn't hurt. He went up the the front desk and asked one of the clerks, "Excuse me, but would you mind if I used your telephone?"

"Not today. We have strict orders to keep the line free." The man with the mustache said strictly.

"Oh."_ Monkey Feathers, _"Please make an exception, I need to locate Chief Beifong's mother, Toph." Another man with glasses looked at him sympathetically, but held his tongue.

"My orders are clear, Councilmen." The man made it clear that Tenzin would receive no help and left to do more important tasks. He huffed, blowing a gust of air and stormed away.

"Uh, Councilman?" the man with glasses whispered and gestured for him to come back. The airbender's mood lightened slightly, this kind gentleman was obviously going to lend him the telephone, "Please don't tell anyone I told you this, it's against regulations."

"Of course?" Maybe he wouldn't get to make that call after all.

"You see, Master Toph is already here." he started hesitantly.

"Here? Where?"

"...In the morgue, Sir."

"What?!" In the blink of an eye his body froze painfully and his breath got caught in his throat, "What?" he added when he found his voice, "No there must be some mistake."

"I overheard the officers that brought her body say that she and the Chief were trying to hold the dam together when it burst. I'm sorry." The Council felt lightheaded all of the sudden. He went over to the nearest wall for support.

"Aunt Toph..." he put his head in his hands, "tell me it's not true."

Once he got himself together a little bit, he found a healer that confirmed what the clerk told him. Toph Beifong was dead and Lin Beifong was in terrible shape and Bolin... where was Bolin? Surely he hadn't been there with them!

"Sorry, I need to use the telephone." He lightly shoved the mustached man aside.

"Police Headquarters, what's your emergency?"

"This is Councilman Tenzin. Is Bolin Beifong there?"

"Sir this line is only used for emergencies."

"This is an emergency. Is Bolin there?"

"...please hold." the receptionist couldn't have been gone for a minute, but it felt like a lifetime.

"Uh...hi?" A boy's voice came over the phone.

"Oh thank goodness. Bolin this is your Uncle Tenzin. Now listen carefully, I want you to go to your mothers office-"

"Captain Saikhan told me to stay outta there." Bolin interrupted.

"Well, go wait for me in the break room, I'm coming over right now to pick you up."

"Okay."

...

"Tenzin," Pema greeted her husband as she walked up to his bison, "I thought you wouldn't be home until later tonight." She didn't get an answer. He just helped his passenger down and started towards the house without even acknowledging his own wife. All words left her. Something happened, something bad.

"Bolin." Her husband sat the boy on a cushion in front of the fire while she stood at the doorway "I need you to be brave for me, alright?" the boy nodded, "Your grandmother was a very brave woman..."

_**I don't know what to do. I lost my grandma. What if I lose my mom**_ **_again_?**...

..."Assassinated?"


	12. Blind As A Wolfbat

**_12:00 afternoon/ Four Days after Flood- Republic City Hall_**

"The dam faltering was a setup." It was safe to say that no council member suspected this from Captain Saikhan, if the five jaws hitting the table was any indication. He'd just had been summoned to report the final tally of damages from the flood four days prior.

"How do you know that?" That wasn't the first question that Tenzin should have asked, but...oh well.

"A setup for what?" Tarrlok asked. Yes, that should have been the first question.

"I ordered an autopsy on Toph Beifong." he answered Tenzin's question first, "They found a broken arrow just beneath the heart. She was assassinated."

..."Assassinated?" Just when he thought he couldn't get anymore bad news. All this devastation, this madness, because of an assassin? And Aunt Toph...murdered? The criminals of this city have been known to try, but he never thought in a million years they would succeed.

"The dam near her home was faltering, on her day off, during a storm. It's obvious that she was lured there to be killed."

"Why are we just now hearing about this?" The new watertribe councilman asked bitterly.

"The rain was too heavy to see the arrow, all our officers saw was Master Beifong collapse without warning, causing the dam to break. She was the strongest earthbender in the world and in perfect health, but that wasn't enough for the coroner to take her body out of preservation, so we had to take a closer look at the dam. There were traces of explosives." Now Tenzin felt guilty, he shouldn't, but he did. He'd been the one to order the coroner to freeze her body in a block of ice so that the funeral could be held at a later date when Lin was well enough to attend.

"Do you have any leads?" Tenzin broke the quiet that had overtaken the room.

"The explosives appeared to general, anyone could have made them, but there's only a handful of archers in the world that could pull off that shot in those conditions, that should narrow it down."

"Good. We expect this murder behind bars quickl-"

"Have you told Chief Beifong any of this?" Everyone stared at his outburst.

"She made her orders clear, Councilman Tenzin, I sent my lieutenant to debrief her." Not good! Tenzin quickly stood up.

"How long ago?"

"About fifteen minutes, Sir."

"There might still be time." he went over to the chairmen's seat and borrowed his gavel, "Meeting adjourned until tomorrow."

"Tenzin, what is the meaning of this?!"

"I have to- well you see, if I don't go, Lin is going to do something...foolish." He rushed out the door.

"But she's only been awake for two days!" Saikhan called after him, "There's no way she can get up!" He could hear Lin now...'You wanna bet?'.

**_12:30 __afternoon_- Republic City Hospital/ Room 201**

"Lin, you need to stay here and heal."

"While my mother's killer roams free? Not a chance, Aunt Katara!" Lin put her uniform on, admittedly wincing, "I'm fine." she said as her aunt folded her arms, "You do good work."

"Even I can't heal you this fast. Lin listen to m-"

"Lin!" Tenzin burst through the door, "Don't do anything!"

"What the hell is wrong with you people?! You want me to wait for my hair to grow back before I get outta bed and do my job?" she tore the bandage off her shaven head. "A man killed my mother and I am going to find him, right now." She growled stepping towards the door, only to have them block her way.

"You can't do this, Lin."

"Watch me." She pushed through them. They each grabbed an arm, "I don't want to fight either of you. But I will." This was probably the first time she'd had ever crossed Katara. It was commonly believed among the family that the waterbender scared Lin more than her own mother, with good reason, when Katara was angry it was always 'yes, ma'am'. So it came as a shock to both of the younger ones that Katara let go first. At first the airbender questioned his eyesight, but he knew it was best to trust his mother's judgment and loosened his grip.

"Wha... Mother, why? She couldn't have beaten us."

"But she would fight us. I know how she feels, Tenzin, such anger and hatred is hard to ignore."

"But, she might kill him. I still believe that we should have stopped her from leaving."

"It would only be a matter of time before she escaped to go after him. And when she finds him, she'll have to make that decision on her own.

"I have to follow her, perhaps I can talk sense into her." Even he knew that was a long shot. There were two things that all Beifongs throughout the generations had in common, they were all hard-headed and short-tempered.

**_12:50 afternoon- Police Headquarters_**

She didn't know what surprised her officers more, her presence at headquarters or her appearance. Sure, they've all seen their chief limp into the station after a hard earned victory, but she looked half dead at the moment...and bald...and murderous. Small children would probably run from her looking like this, even many of the adults gave her a wide berth as she made her way to the archives. Every movement brought a new pain, but she pushed through it, there was a job to be done. On the other hand, she wasn't stupid. Her injuries were going to effect her in the field so she needed to sit and rest until she knew who to go after.

"Chief?" An officer jumped out of his seat in surprise.

"Who's case are you working on?"

"The assassination. I'm pulling together a list of the world's best archers that we have on file."

"Fine. I'll put a suspect list together."

"Pardon me Chief, but isn't that what I'm doing?" This man was the best at archive work; fast and thorough. But finding information and putting it to good use were two different things, and he didn't seem to realize that.

"You can't assume that every good archer was out to kill." she snapped, "And odds are that the assassin was nothing more than a hired hand of someone with a grudge."

"But what if the archer acted on their own?"

"Then I might be able to cross reference the archer with the suspects list and we'll have probable cause." This had to be done by the book, or at least for now. Her mother always said there's a time to enforce the rules, and a time to break them. The trick was knowing _when_ to throw the rule book out and start busting heads, "When you've finished, report your findings to me."

"Of course, Chief." The first thing she had to do was get all the files detailing every threat her mother got while she wore the badge. Those took a entire drawer by themselves, no shortage of people wanting to cause her mother harm. She removed the files and carried them over to a secluded table in the back of the room. Grabbing some nearby paper and writing utensils she said down and assessed the workload,

"You could've at least _tried_ not to paint a target on your forehead, Mother...I know you're there, Airhead."

"Oh," Tenzin poked his head around the corner, "I, uh...wanted to check on you."

"Cut the garbage, say it and get it over with." She barked. He came to the table and sat down beside her.

"I think you're making a mistake. You are hurt, Lin."

"I'll survive." Probably.

"And I fear that you might be tempted to take the life of the archer when you find him."

"The thought's crossed my mind." Again and again and again...

"Vengeance is never the answer. Forgiveness is-"

"Is something for airbenders and monks. Tenzin, I am not now, nor will I ever be, either of those things." He should know by now that she wasn't the forgiving type. So he tried a more practical approach.

"You could go to prison for murder."

"The bastard's facing the capital punishment for the deaths of sixteen officers, twelve rescue workers and five civilians. With any luck he'll resist arrest." That way she could kill him and honestly claim self defense. Even if the judge knew full well that she was only too happy to kill him, there wasn't anything that could be done about it except a resignation.

"Well..." he was on the same page "...think of you officers...who's going to lead them if you were forced to resign?"

"Don't try to talk me outta this Tenzin." Well, he finally struck a cord. She never thought about herself, so the best way to get through was to remind her of the people she'd be hurting, "And what about your son?"

"This doesn't concern him."

"Child services can take him from you for even suspecting that you intentionally killed a man."

"I just became the third richest person in the world and inherited a title on top of it. They can't touch him."

"You'll kill them if they try?" The sad part was, he saw her lips form the word 'yes'. She stopped herself, though.

"Get. Out. Now." Knowing there was nothing more to be said, he left her in peace.

Jia Li...Dead.

Lian...Possible/not likely. She wrote the name and information down.

Dewei...Jail.

Shui..Jail. On and on. The minutes turned to hours and soon it was three o'clock in the morning. That was when the archer's locations had finally been discovered. Putting aside her own work for the moment, the chief started sorting through the list. There was only one that was known to be anywhere near Republic City and a suspect in other paid killings. She had a winner.

"Get information on Jiao-long." It was another hour before that information came in. He 'allegedly' was your standard high priced hit man. Handsome ladies man, lived the high life, donated time and money to his local charities...everything that made him innocent in the eyes of a jury; the last person you'd ever think that would commit cold blooded murder. So, he wouldn't have a care in the world. He'd probably come along quietly, let his fancy lawyer do the work, then make a public statement where he sympathetically told reporters that he was sorry for the mistake and he hoped that the police force found the real perpetrator quickly. Why couldn't it be some dumb renegade that attacked her on sight?

**_5:00 Morning- Police Headquarters/Overload Cell_**

This was the plan. Don't tell the public that there was an assassin. Let the archer assume that the police had no idea that anything more than a dam faltering had happened. Then they would discreetly search every upscale inn within the city while their contacts in the triads found out everything they could, especially big payoffs. In the mean time, Lin was due for another healing session, this time with Kya.

"You know this isn't healthy?" Kya asked as soon as she had Lin on the cot.

"Katara sent you."

"She said that you might listen to someone your own age and not-"

"A preachy airhead?"

"Your ex. But I agree." Kya chuckled, "Tenzin is pretty preachy. This time though, I think maybe you at least consider taking his advice."

"Would my mother take his advice if I was the one frozen in a block of ice?" Lin challenged.

"Just be careful, you stubborn badgermole. Don't do anything you might regret, and" she gave the younger woman a glare, "get some rest."

**_10:00 Night/ Fourteen Days After Flood- Police Headquarters/ Chief's office_**

"We found him Chief. The new inn over by the Golden Tower." When her officers found out that Toph had been murdered and their fellow officers were killed as a result, they all went in an uproar. '_Mess with one, fight us all_', that was their motto. All of them decided to go the extra mile. Some were volunteering for double shifts, some coming in on their day off, and others doing their partner's paperwork so that they could work on the assassin case. This was the most coordinated and driven Lin had ever seen any of them.

"How long as he been there?"

"Our intelligence says he checked in two days before the flood, and he unexpectedly extended his stay."

"He hasn't been paid yet." Good news at last.

"You want me to alert a couple undercover teams?"

"Have a team take the day shift. I'll take the night."

"You?" She turned to glare at him, "I mean, of course Chief." There were ways that she could pull this off, tell-tale scars or no.

**_12:00 Morning/ Eighteen Days after Flood_**

"Lin could we please surface for some fresh air?" Tenzin nudged her in the side. Airbenders didn't do well underground.

"We still got twenty minutes of air, Windbag." Why did she get stuck with this whining...oh yes, because the council didn't trust her to go alone...can't imagine why...something about mass triad bloodshed, demolished city blocks...general things an incredibly pissed off Beifong could do if provoked.

"Is anything happening yet?"

"Nothing in the _last minute_, Tenzin."

"Well I beg your pardon, but _I_ can not see what's going on up there! I can't see anything down here, either!"

"Then you shouldn't have told the council that you'd babysit me!"

"I'm not babysitting, I'm watching out for your well-being!"

"You're here to make sure that-wait, he's moving." she grabbed Tenzin's wrist and followed her target as he slowly made his way to a mid level tavern. When it was apparent that he was meeting someone she burrowed up to the floor, a few millimeters more and the ground would fallout on top of them.

_"When do I get paid?"_

_"You weren't supposed to destroy the place."_

_"That was you people's fault. I did what was in my contract and you're gonna pay me now. Or you're gonna be the one with an arrow in your heart."_

"Go call the police, Tenzin." She quietly cleared a path to the surface of a nearby room.

"Yes, right." He rushed off, meaning the hectic child was without adult supervision.

**_Rumble..._ **

The archer, his employer, and his employer's thugs all lost their footing as Lin shook the ground beneath them. She sprang up ready for a fight, and she wasn't disappointed. The hit man was smart enough to run, as it was painstakingly obvious she wasn't too concerned with protocol at the moment. The thugs, however, didn't get the idea and decided to attack first, causing an irritated boss to do the same. She took out one by redirecting the rock he threw at her, breaking his nose and left cheekbone which knocked him out cold. The second she grabbed with her cables and slammed him into the wall hard enough to break his hip while dodging a small boulder from their boss before he followed Jiao-long.

Now that the low-level idiots were taken care of, the chief could focus on the bigger prize. The two men most directly responsible for her mother's death. She heard reinforcements coming as she got up on the zip lines and chased after them.

The boss was easy enough to catch, she tackled him from above, her feet landing in the middle of his back. She ignored his cry of pain, choosing instead to cuff him to the post and continue on after the hit man. Once he was in striking range, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Hold it," Jiao-long said smoothly as he raised his arms. Lin looked down the street to see her officers blocking the path. "I didn't do anything wrong, what am I running for?" He knew that she wouldn't hurt him with credible witnesses around. He was wrong.

"The murder of thirty-three people." One called. The others crossed their arms and stood their ground. Yes, they wanted to see him get his comeuppance. She aimed her cables at him. He ducked to his left and looked at the cops expectantly. No help was forthcoming.

"Some law enforcement," He swung a punch at her. Lin put up her arm and let him break his knuckle on her armor, then tossed him down to the ground. When he tried go get back up she pulled up a skull sized rock. His head was a perfect target. He deserved it. She should do it. She drew back and threw it. The sicking sound of crushing bones could be heard down the street. His right hand would have to be amputated, he'd never be able to draw back a bow again.

_**12:00 Noon/ 21 Days After Flood **_

Suspended for three weeks without pay...very disappointed...bad example...'reluctant' "good job". Blah, blah, blah. As Lin walked behind Toph Beifong's casket through the city with her family and officers, she didn't care what the council did to her. She got to bury her mother knowing that the bastards responsible for this would never hurt anyone again. To make sure of that, she arranged for all of them to be relocated to the Boiling Rock if (when) the jury found them guilty. That way, they'd have plenty of warning if they escaped.

"Mom, that music's really sad." Bolin whispered as they reached the mountain range where they'd put the mother of metalbending in the earth.

"I know. She'd want something more-"

"Fun?"

"Yeah, Kid, fun."

_"I'm alone in the world, and my luck's runnin' low," _He began to sing. She smirked. Yeah, that was more her mother's style.

_"The trail's so hard with such a long way to go." _She joined in only because the senile crone would want her to.

_"I got no sunshine, and I got no moon," _Kya, Bumi, Tenzin, Katara and Zuko.

_"no reinforcements to save me from doom." _Everyone else.

_"But I don't fear the dark or any risk that comes along," _They all sang together,

_because I'm blind as a wolfbat and twice as strong." _Many sad laughs were heard.

"Best lullaby ever, Mom."

_**Dear Mako,**_

_**Mom caught the guys that killed Grammy. After we buried her, Uncle Bumi said that Grammy would not want us moping like a bunch of...tearbending sissies (that's what Grammy would call us). So we went to a bar. Everybody told funny stories.**_

_"There was a tradition at the time. If you saved a fellow officer's life, they took you to a tavern and bought you drinks." Bumi stood on the bar of the high scale tavern/inn they leased for the evening, "It didn't matter if it was your wedding, anniversary, your only daughter's tenth birthday...you went to the tavern and got drunk on someone else's tab. So Toph had no choice, but she'd also promised Lin that she'd spend time with her. So she picked her up, went to the tavern and said, _

_'if a drop of alcohol touches that girl's tongue, I'll lock you up and smash the key'. The next morning Kya goes to mom and says, 'Toph and Lin came over last night, and they're both drunk!'. I never saw mom move so fast in my life. We just knew that she was going to kick Aunt Toph's butt. After that, it became Lin's birthday tradition, and half the fun was not getting caught by Katara."_

**_I had to go to bed early. Aunt Kya said things were getting too rough. But in the paper this morning there were funny pictures from the party. Uncle Tenzin danced on the table with a lamp cover on his head. Mom had a beard glued to her face. Uncle Bumi was wearing a dress. Aunt Kya said they should not trust her to watch over them when they drink. HAHA! Mom does not know I put one paper under my bed. If you see her, don't tell her._**

**_I hope you are alright. I hope we find you soon, Love Bolin._**


	13. Love, Bolin

_**Dear Mako,**_

_**Mom looked kind of sad when I asked, but she said she would take me to the Earth Rumble this year.  
**_

_"It's good that you're still going to Goaling, Lin." Tenzin said over supper.  
_

_"I didn't know your mother that well, but I think she'd want you to go." Pema added. They were both doing their best to comfort her, to the point of being annoying. Of course Lin knew what Pema said was true. Her mother would smack her upside the head if she found out that the woman she raised to be as tough as her armor was avoiding the tournament because of the memories it brought._

_"Hey, Mom, can we go in the ring this year?"_

_"Not a chance, Kid. You're too young."_

_"Hey! You were my age when you went in."_

_"I had a lot more training." That was the end of the conversation. As Lin and her boy started towards the docks she heard a very familar, very snobbish voice, whisper,_

_"...least they won't be destroying the island anymore." Father Superior obviously thought they were still in the house with the airheads...either that or he was just asking for it. She leaned down and pulled Bolin close,_

_"What do you say, Boy, you up for a lesson?" _

_"You bet." He grinned, almost evilly, he couldn't quite pull off an evil smirk just yet._

_BOOM...CRASH...SMASH. CRASH. CRASH... Every inhabitant of the island came out to witness the destruction. _

_"It looks better this way." Lin nodded her approval as she surveyed the damage to the training area. It was worst than when the windbag broke it off with her._

_"Sure does, Mom." _

_"Let's go home."_

_"Lin...why?" Tenzin was making a mental list of what he, his wife or his daughter may have done to anger the earthbenders._

_"Because," she looked at Father Superior, who's face was so dark red that it looked purple, "it was fun."_

**_We were mean to Father...something. But he was mean first. We were mean to Uncle Tenzin, too, I guess. But we fixed it once we got back to the city. The Rumble was great, but not the same. I miss watching _****_Grammy__ fight. I miss you, too. I hope we find you soon._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Aunt Pema had her baby. It's a girl. Her name is Ikki. I don't like the name because it sounds like icky. I didn't tell Aunt Pema or Uncle Tenzin that. She looks funny right now. Mom says she will grow out of it. I don't know. You can see her when we find you, _**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,  
_**

**_I'm ten now. We went to the Fire Nation for my birthday._**

_"Faster, Aunt Kya!" Bolin shouted from his spot on the ice board.  
_

_"If you say so." She sped up into the wave. As they were coming out of it Bolin lost his grip, "Bo!" Every adult and most of the children rushed to where he'd fallen off, but it wasn't long before the waterbender pulled him back to the surface. He spit out water as she pulled him into shallow waters.  
_

_"Let's do that again."_

_"Umm," Kya saw Lin giving her boy the death glare. It hadn't taken a life yet, but it was only a matter of time, "Let's not."_

_" 'Sides, Rhy," Bumi had taken it upon himself to keep Toph's nickname alive, "You still haven't opened your presents."_

**_Mom said I can't go waterbending surfing again until I learn how to hold on. Oh, well. I bet you would have made it. When we find you, you can try. I miss you._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Happy Birthday! I hope you're okay._**

_"Mom, it wasn't him, was it?" Bolin overheard an officer say they found a body of a street kid.  
_

_"No, he had blue eyes." His mother was quick to assure._

_"Are we ever going to find him?" It'd been four years already and no sign of his big brother. What could Lin say? 'Odds are we'll never find him'? No. That might be true, but Mako was family, and they didn't turn their backs on family._

_"We won't stop looking until we do."_

**_We'll find you. Even if it takes a hundred years!_**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako, _**

**_Aunt Pema is having a baby._**

_"Tenzin, hand the girl to your wife before you faint."_

_"Alright." He said quickly handing his child over to Pema. The few people who used seismic sense to Lin's extent could predict such things very well, and he trusted that he would hit the floor in the next few seconds. "Strange," he said after a moment, "I don't feel faint."_

_"She's pregnant."_

_THUD_

**_Uncle Tenzin fainted! Funny, huh? Hope to see you soon._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Sorry I have not wrote in a while. I'm eleven. Just a normal birthday. Good food and presents. Only thing missing was you. Wish you were here._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Happy Birthday. Thirteen huh? You're a teenager now. Doesn't seem like five years since I saw you last. _**

_"You see anything, Boy?" Lin asked as Bolin closed his eyes and smacked the ground with the palm of his hand._

_"A bird on brick wall, that's about it." _

_"Good. You seismic sense is getting better. You don't need me to double check you anymore."_

_"Great!" He grinned, "Since there's two of us, we can search the whole city!" They'd find Mako in no time._

_"We'll search as much as we can."_

**_Just be careful, I'll find you as fast as I can._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Why can't Mom and Pabu get along?_**

_Bolin walked into the kitchen after his morning training and bath, with his faithful pet on his shoulder. As soon as the chief laid eyes on the animal, her expression turned sour,  
_

_"Get that filthy rodent outta here." She growled. Pabu hissed at her. Bolin closed the fire ferret's muzzle.  
_

_"Wait right here, Buddy." He set Pabu right outside the kitchen boundaries, "You know, that wasn't one of the rules you made," he got a look that could stop a charging Sabertooth Mooselion, "but he is an animal so I guess it'd be best if he stayed out." he shoveled some food into his mouth before he said something else that could get him in trouble._

_"Nice cover." She watched him eat in mild annoyance. Yes he was technically using table manners, but he stuffed his face as fast as he could, "You'd think I starved you."_

_"I'm a growing boy." he covered his mouth to belch. _

_"Go get your bag. We need to go."_

_"Okay." he ran past Pabu._

_"Quit running," she got up and went to the sitting room, "we're not going to a fire!" The rodent climbed up her armor nudged her head with his nose._

_"Alright, here you go, Rodent." She said quietly as she gave him a small piece of meat, "Just don't tell the boy, don't want him to think I like you. I'd never hear the end of it." She scratched him behind his ear._

_"Mom, I can't find my bag!"_

_"You better find it! You don't want me to come up there and find it for you!"_

_"...Got it!" As the thundering footsteps of a boy in a hurry came closer, Lin shooed the animal off her shoulder before Bolin could see. _

_"Dumb rodent."_

_HISS_

**_Don't worry, I'm sure you and Pabu will be best buddies. Can't wait to find you,_**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_His name is Meelo. That's a funny name, but I like it. Wonder how many kids Aunt Pema's going to have?_**

_"Uncle Tenzin, I know a man has to put the baby in a lady's stomach," cue adults choking on their drinks, "but how?" _

_"Lin. Would you please explain this to your son; elsewhere?"_

_"How would mom know?" Bolin asked, "She's a girl and I'm adopted."_

_"That's right, Tenzin." Lin smirked, "Besides, you gotta practice for your boy."_

_"Dear, I think he _should_ hear this from a man." Pema said sweetly to save the argument which Lin would win anyway._

_"I'm not going to get out of this am I?" everyone shook their heads, "...Come along, Bolin." The airbender tried to ignore the roaring laughter that followed him out of the room._

**_I'm never having kids; gross! Don't think you should either. I'll tell you about it when we find you._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_It's my birthday again. Mom took me to the Pro Bending Arena._**

_"That was so cool!"_

_"It's not as good as the Earth Rumble." Lin shrugged, it used to be, but then they added zones, forbid the use of ice and told the earthbenders that the could only throw discs. This was still a nice game to pass the time, but she preferred a match that would actually test bending ability._

_"No, but it uses three elements." He defended it. There wasn't a point in arguing with an twelve-year-old, so she just kept silent and waited for the next match._

**_The matches were awesome. I wonder if you've ever seen one. When we find you, we'll go to one, just you and me.  
_**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Mom's training me for the upcoming Earth Rumble. Isn't that cool? I'll write you and let you know how it turns out. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll find you in time for you to come watch me. Miss you.  
_**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_I lost._**

_"And the match goes to Rhyolite!" The host called as the blindfolded boy tiredly raised his arm in victory. The crowd cheered him on, "His next opponent, your champion, Stone Feng!" Bolin got into his stance as the fighter entered the ring,  
_

_"Listen, Kid, you may have the Beifong name, but you ain't got the blood." The crowd 'ohh'ed. Bolin frowned a little, then remembered what his mom told him, 'They're gonna taunt you. They're gonna make you feel worthless, it's all a show to make you mess up so don't listen to a word...and Son, don't even try any comebacks. Be the strong silent type', she'd told him that last part after hearing him rehearse a few comeback lines.  
_

_Bolin sunk the ground beneath Stone Feng, the fighter went with it, burrowing under ground. But he couldn't see under ground like a Beifong could. Bolin reasoned that because of this he must be going to come straight up behind him, so he propelled himself to the spot his opponent left...and flew out of the ring as the ground he stood on rose up at great speed. He'd fallen into a trap._

_"The winner and still Champion, Stone Feng!" _

_"You alright, Son?" Lin asked him as he shook the dirt off._

_"I'm sorry, Mom." _

_"What for?" _

_"I didn't win." __Bolin hung his head in shame._

_"I told you to do your best and you won five outta six matches."_

_"Yeah, but you won them all. When you were nine!"_

_"I was also a master earthbender at nine." she patted his shoulder, "You did fine."_

_"I am the greatest earthbender in the world!" Stone Feng held up his belt, "No Beifong imitator is gonna take this away!" Both Beifongs took offence. There was gloating and then there was hitting below the belt. Luckily, a__s everyone knew, if the reigning champion won they'd give someone in the audience a chance. And Lin would love to put that moron in his place. _

_"You want me to go kick his ass?" She asked, crossing her arms and glaring at the champ._

_"...Yeah." he handed over the blindfold._

_"...I'll give this sack of money to anyone who can defeat Stone Feng!" The host announced. Lin stormed up to the stage._

**_Mom won. It looked like it hurt. A lot. He made mom mad. Don't ever do that. Hope I see you soon._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Now we're both teenagers. Ikki put her hands in the cake, it was still good though. Hope to find you soon._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako, _**

**_I have a girlfriend now._**

_He and his girlfriend walked along the beach not knowing that they were being watched._

_"Lin, come look!" Pema whispered excitedly. Lin walked over to see her son about to kiss a visiting acolyte girl._

_RUMMMMBBBLE...SPLASH! Bolin landed in the somewhat cold water._

_"Mom!" _

_"Lin!"_

_"It's for his own good."_

**_Mom does not like her. Aunt Pema says that we just make mom feel old. Moms are weird. It's not my fault she feels old! Anyway, I hope to find you soon._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_Happy fifteenth birthday! I hope you get a present. And I hope we can bring you home soon. I'm really starting to worry about you. _****_I know you probably aren't getting any of these letters, but I like sending them. I don't know why. It just seems right. I just wish we could get you off the streets. The family I'm in isn't like our old family..._**

_"Wooohoooo!" Bumi shouted as he Kya and Lin chased Tenzin around the large room, eventually tackling him to the ground while Pema looked on with worry. The current and previous Fire Lords were calmly engrossed in a game of Pai Sho, never concerned with the fact that Bolin was switching the tiles when they turned their heads. Katara put on an extravagant water show to keep the children busy; Iroh and some of his cousins were trying to one up each other in a test of strength which could destroy furniture at any given time. Just a normal gathering of his crazy family._

**__****_..but it's good. _****_As always, I miss you, big brother._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

**_Dear Mako, _**

**_My girlfriend broke up with me. It sucks. Anyway, I'm gonna fight in the Earth Rumble again and Asami gets to come with me. I hope you can come watch me fight to. I miss you, big brother._**

**_Love, Bolin _**

* * *

**_Dear Mako,_**

**_You are looking at, well not looking at, but I am the new Earth Rumble Champion!_**

_He huffed, exhausted from fighting, but stood proud as he held his belt high. Asami ruffled his hair as the crowd surrounded him and cheered. He saw his mom leaning against the wall, smirking the way only a proud Beifong mother could._

_**It was awesome! No one can call me an imitation Beifong anymore. **__**Mom and me donated most of my prize money to orphanages. But I can still **__**show you the belt I won! I'll see you soon. I have a really good feeling about it.**_

_**Love, Bolin**_

* * *

_**Dear Mako,**_

_Bolin had gotten weekend job as a janitor at Police Headquarters, and was currently scrubbing the break room floor on his hands and knees. It was vacant for the longest time before an officer named Ning came in with someone._

_"This is the break room."_

_"Okay," The rookie looked it over, missing Bolin behind the tables, _

_"And this kid's name is Mako." Ning gave the newcomer a flyer. Bolin perked up at the name of his brother, "Memorize that face. He's about fifteen now. You see a boy who looks anything like that you tell the Chief. It's her adopted son's brother."_

_"She's had that boy awhile hasn't she?"_

_" 'bout seven, eight years."_

_"By now his brother's probably..."_

_"Yeah, I know. Dead or in a triad. Just be on the lookout."_

**_You're not in a triad...are you? I hope not. See you soon._**

**_Love, Bolin_**

* * *

"So, you're gonna be sixteen soon." "Two Toed" Ping made conversation as he walked Ash out of Triple Threat Headquarters.

"...Yeah."

"Legal age of adulthood. We could use a man like you in our organization."

"I'll think about it."

"What's there to think about?" Ping threw his hands up wildly, "You been freelancing for scraps and protection, now I'm offering a full-fledged membership with all the benefits that go with it and all you say is 'I'll think about it'? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means I'll think about it!"

"Okay, okay. But it's not like you got any better offers." The triad member followed the young man down the street.

"Don't you got somewhere to be?"

"Naw, not until three o'clock. Till then, I'll just hang out with you. You know, Ash, you remind me a lot of myself at your age." he rambled on for a good ten minutes until he felt something hit his leg, "Hey, what's this?"

"Just trash." Ash answered the rhetorical question as Ping picked up the dirty, crumpled, and apparently old piece of paper.

"Well, let's see. You never know, right?" he unwrinkled the paper and began to read aloud, "'_Dear Mako, __Happy fifteenth birthday!_"Aww, that's sweet."_I hope you get a present. And I hope we can bring you home soon. I'm really starting to worry about you._"That's sad, "___I know you probably aren't getting any of these letters, but I like sending them. I don't know why. It just seems right. I just wish we could get you off the streets. The family I'm in isn't like our old family... but it's good. __As always, I miss you, big brother. __Love, Bolin.' _That poor kid, hope he finds his brother. I'm a sucker for tearful reunions.

"It's just trash, Ping." Ash ripped the paper out of his hands, "Let it go."

"Okay, jeez, you're stressed, man. You need to relax." He decided there were better things he could do with his free time than hang out with a moody teenager, "And think about what we talked about."

"Alright." Ash waited until Ping was out of sight to look at the letter. This couldn't be _his_ Bolin, could it? Naw, "Even if it is, it's probably a set up." he said to himself, crumpling up the paper and threw it over his shoulder before continuing on. '_A set up for what_?' one side of his mind asked. The triple threats used underage crooks to run numbers for a reason, the police couldn't touch them. He wasn't sixteen yet, "So, what if Bolin's really trying to find me? He is my brother." '_He's also the Chief of Police's adopted son! Is it worth the risk_?' the more cynical part of himself reasoned. "This is stupid." He ran back and found the paper.

...

"May I help you?" the clerk asked as he walked up.

"I need to speak with Chief Beifong." That surprised the man,

"She's usually too busy for visitors, but I can ask. Name?"

"Mako."


End file.
